Move over bolognese. Sorry. I found something better. And that something is pork ragu.
That’s a bold statement. I know. Bolognese is a classic. One of the greats. Adored by zillions. Maybe more. It’s entirely possible that I’m alone on this one.
But I don’t think so. That’s why I’m poking at the most famous pasta sauce of all time. I truly believe pork ragu that good.
There’s amazing depth of flavour here. Complexity. This is one seriously satisfying pasta sauce.
This is my kind of food. If you’re here I’m guessing it might be your kind of food too.
Pork or beef?
Confession time. Bolognese has always been a bit of a mystery to me. Which is odd. I know.
It’s billed as the epitome of meat and pasta. And yet somehow I am not at one with it. I want to love it. But I can’t.
I’m not saying it isn’t great. I’m just saying it isn’t great for me.
I’ve tried hard to come up with a version that impresses me. Really hard in fact. Like my whole life hard.
Beef. Beef and pancetta. Tomatoes. Tomato paste. Both. Ground pork and pancetta with beef. Red wine. White wine. Milk. No milk. I’ve tried it all.
A lifetime making big pots of nothing special. That’s where I wound up. Never terrible. Some pots better than others. But never truly great.
Somewhere along the journey I learned about Neapolitan ragu. And Neapolitan ragu brought me to pork ragu. I call that a win. A huge win in fact.
Sometimes good things just happen
Another confession. I didn’t work hard on this recipe. No experimentation. I totally fell into this recipe. This one is just blind luck.
I bought a rack of spares. In the dead of winter. In Canada. Smoker under 2 feet of snow. Not the smartest move. I know.
Found myself staring into the fridge wondering what to make. And I thought of pasta amatriciana. Pork and tomato. So I just went for it.
And it worked. Really, really well.
Pork ragu is about simplicity
Sometimes less is more. This is one of those times. There’s not a lot to this recipe. Pork ribs. Tomatoes. Italian sausage. Onion. Salt. That’s it. For real.
Five ingredients. Up against around twenty in bolognese. Doesn’t seem like a fair fight. And yet pork ragu wins. Decisively. I think anyway.
Five ingredients is actually why this recipe works so well. There is no confusion on the palate.
Pork and tomato compete for the dominant flavour. It’s hard to decide what comes out on top.
Maybe it’s tomato tempered by pork. Maybe it’s pork lightened with tomato. Doesn’t really matter.
What matters is the flavours play against each other. In a way that has you coming back for more.
It’s really not fair to compare pork ragu to bolognese. Bolognese is an almost entirely meat sauce. With just a hint of tomato. It’s a dark, brooding kind of dish.
Pork ragu is different. Bright. Brash. Exuberant. With a depth of flavour that just goes on and on and on.
The power of the braise
Ribs are dead easy to cook if you treat them right. Tender. Juicy. Incredibly satisfying. One of my favourite things in the world to eat.
Everybody knows barbecue. Toss some ribs in a smoker for half a day. That’s famous for a reason.
Then there’s the one you might not think about. Braising. Braising ribs works incredibly well.
There’s magic in braising ribs. The line between the meat and tomato blurs.
So you don’t know where the meat ends and the sauce starts. You really have to taste it to understand.
Mild Italian sausage brings the seasoning
This one may seem a little counter-intuitive. Or absolutely insane. Depends on your perspective.
There are no herbs in this recipe. No oregano. No basil. Nothing. Except Italian sausage.
That’s a little glebekitchen heresy. Sausage as a seasoning. You say crazy. I say inspired.
I have heard crazy people don’t know they’re crazy though. So maybe you’re right. What I do know is sausage makes pork ragu amazing.
It has to be Italian sausage. Bratwurst doesn’t cut it. Chorizo is all wrong. The spicing needs to be Italian.
And you can’t leave it out. The flavours from the sausage are a big part of why pork ragu works. No sausage. No point. Seriously. Just don’t bother.
Pork ragu many ways
This is no one trick pony. It’s great as a pasta sauce. I wanted to do a big tagliatelle for dinner. But I was out. And it was late. So I went spaghetti.
Tagliatelle would be better. But spaghetti worked pretty well. Rigatoni would work really well too. A little parmigiano or pecorino and some pepper. Seriously tasty.
Lasagna with pork ragu and fresh mozzarella? Absolutely killer. The creaminess of the fior up against the richness of the pork. Serious yum.
It’s amazing with good quality gnocchi too. Boil the gnocchi until it floats, then toss it with a good amount of pork ragu.
Top with a healthy sprinkle of your favourite cheese and bake it off for 10 minutes. That one is getting made a lot here lately.
Please try pork ragu
I get this one is a little different. Not something anyone’s ever heard of. A little weird even.
But it is just so good. So I’m asking you to make a leap. You won’t be sorry.
I may never bother trying another meat ragu ever again. Except Neapolitan ragu. You really should give that one a go as well. Lots of pork in that one too.
This one is my new favourite. And I’m hoping it might turn out to be yours as well. If it does please make it for friends. For family. So they discover it too.
And maybe someday it’ll be a thing.
Pork ragu
Ingredients
- 4 lbs pork side ribs aka spares or spare ribs
- 3 pork sausages you want mild or hot Italian here
- 1 large onion finely diced
- 3 28 oz canned whole tomatoes go for good quality here. Or use a decent passata (see note). Either way read the ingredients. If your tomatoes have salt in the ingredient list you will need to adjust the salt in this recipe downwards.
- 1 6 oz tomato paste the thick stuff
- 2 tbsp olive oil
- 1 tsp salt plus more to taste. Probably another tsp at least.
Instructions
Broil your ribs
- There's flavour in brown. Trim your ribs so they fit onto a sheet pan (or whatever else you can make work). Arrange them meaty side up along with any meat you've had to trim. Season liberally with salt.
- Broil them until they are nicely browned on one side. This is a critical step so don't skip it. It's a bit of a hassle but it's way easier than trying to brown ribs in a pot.
- Remove the ribs from the oven, let cool and slice into two ribs pieces. Two rib pieces because they are just easier to manoeuvre than individual ribs. I've tried it both ways. Trust me. Set aside.
- Set your oven to 325F.
Prep your tomatoes
- Read the ingredients on your tomato can. If salt is listed then you are going to need to be careful with how much salt you add.
- Pass the tomatoes and their juices through a food mill. If you don't have a food mill use passata.
Make the sauce
- Heat a large (the ribs are going to have to fit large) pot over medium low heat.
- Add the diced onion and cook gently until the onions are translucent and soft. You don't want brown here. And for sure you don't want little dark brown (almost burned) bits.
- Add the tomato paste, stir and cook gently for a minute or two.
- Add the tomatoes or passata and two teaspoons of kosher salt. If you use regular table salt a teaspoon and a bit will give the same results. Don't over salt. And if your tomatoes contain salt in the ingredients cut then cut this by half and adjust at the end.
- Bring to a simmer and add the reserved pork ribs. They may not quite all fit under the surface of the tomato sauce. That's OK. We'll fix that later.
- When the pot of soon to be amazing comes back to a simmer cover tightly and transfer to the oven. You remembered to pre-heat the oven right?
- Wait an hour. Go for a walk. Watch the game. Do what you need to do.
- After an hour grab a big bowl and remove the pot from the oven. It's time to rearrange the ribs to the ones that were above the surface of the liquid are now submerged.
- Good tongs are your best friend in the kitchen. If it's just a couple pieces just rearrange. Should be easy. If there are a bunch then the ribs that were above the surface and put them on one side of the bowl. Take a roughly equivalent amount of the ribs that were submerged and put them on the other side of the bowl.
- Return the ones that were above the surface back into the pot and then dump the rest of the contents of the bowl on top.
- Cover and return to the oven. Time to wait another hour.
- After the ribs have been cooking two hours total check them. They should be tender. Shreddable. If they aren't there yet return the pot to the oven for another 15 minutes and check again. I can't tell you exactly how long this is going take. I don't know how thick your ribs are. I don't know how accurate your oven is. You want tender. You'll know when you get there. If you aren't sure they probably aren't done.
- When your ribs are meltingly tender, transfer the pot to the stove. Remove the ribs from the sauce. Have a look at your sauce. There will be fat pooling on the surface. Remove as much as you can and discard. Don't be too worried about leaving a bit in the pot. Fat tastes good.
- Let the ribs cool until you can comfortably handle them then remove the meat from the bones, shredding it into little bits as you go. It should just sort of smush easily in your hands (I did say tender). Set the meat aside. Discard the bones.
- Add the whole sausages into the pot. Bring to a very gentle simmer on the stove and cook until an instant read thermometer reads 160F or you believe they are mostly done. This should take around 15 minutes but check them after 10 to see what's going on. Don't worry about perfect. Everything cooks a little more.
- Remove the sausages from the sauce and let cool until you can handle them comfortably. Cut the sausages up into 1/4 inch pieces.
- Return the diced sausage and shredded pork to the pot, bring to a simmer and cook for another 20 minutes or so.
- Have a look in the pot. Your sauce is likely pretty thick at this point. Dilute with about a cup of water or chicken stock. You want it saucy. Not crazy saucy. But saucy. How much liquid you need will be a function of how tightly sealed your pot was.
- Taste and adjust the salt. You will need at least another teaspoon of kosher salt (or half as much table salt). I wound up at almost 4 teaspoons of kosher salt total in my last batch. For table salt that would be about 2 teaspoons.
- Serve with spaghetti or tagliatelle or rigatoni. Or make a baked gnocchi or a killer lasagna. Or just put some in a bowl and eat it with crusty bread. Try not to eat it all out of the pot with a spoon. It's really that good…