The Road to Ragú
Let me
confess at the outset that I took a wrong turn. It was meant to be a shortcut
to fit in with my February resolution to spend less time in the kitchen, but like
any shortcut guided by Murphy’s Law, it ended up in the wrong place.
Fortunately, unintended destinations from shortcuts can lead to interesting new
discoveries. No, I’m not talking about a journey to some exotic South Seas
island, but the very delectable slow cooked meat sauce called Ragú of
Mediterranean origin, most notably from Southern Italy.
It all
started out on one of our recent snowy weekends, when a spicy pork dish sounded
appealing. I thought of spare ribs and the freezer yielded a nice package of
country style ribs. I was ready to roast the last butternut squash from our
summer garden and so in my February minimalist mode, it seemed logical to use a
recently acquired ribs recipe that just required rubbing the meat with some
spices and roasting them in a slow oven, tightly wrapped in foil, and bake them
at the same time.
BIG
mistake! The lean country style ribs could be quickly grilled and augmented
with barbecue sauce, but my recipe was obviously meant for different, more
succulent cut of meat, like St. Louis style pork ribs. The aroma was wonderful,
but I had visions of Charlie Chaplin savoring the view of his braised boot. It
was dry. Spicy, but dry!
Well,
sometimes this happens in the best of kitchens and with any luck you can find a
way to salvage by following Ben Franklin’s advice: ”Waste not, want not”. It
was a little too late to put the ribs in a slow cooker, but Mediterranean
country tables are rich with inventive ways of braising meat in a tomato based
sauce, often with sweet or hot sausage.
With this
in mind, the tough country ribs were thinly sliced/shredded and ready to be
transformed in something edible. To build flavor in a bold tomato sauce one
needs to start with a sauté of vegetables or a soffritto, with additional
spices and then allow all the flavors to blend with the meat by slow stove top
cooking for hours. Thus a Ragù is a dish that allows improvisation according to
your taste, imagination and what is available in your kitchen. Once you have
everything in the pot, it takes care of itself, except for a stir once an hour
while you watch the next snow storm move into Midcoast Maine.
Spicy Pork Ragù
In a heavy
Dutch oven or large pot, fry 2 slices thick bacon until almost crisp, drain on
paper towels. Pour off most of the fat retaining about 2 Tblsp. Chop and sauté
for 7 minutes on high heat: 1 large onion, 1 large carrot and 1 stalk celery
until the vegetables start to brown. Add 4 chopped cloves of garlic and ¾ cups
chopped celery leaves, 2 tsp. dried oregano, ¼ tsp. red pepper flakes, 1 tsp.
ground cumin, 1 tsp. cinnamon, ½ tsp. ground coriander, ½ tsp. smoked paprika
(optional). Stir over medium heat for 1 minute and add 1 cup white wine. Stir
in the meat (2+ cups shredded), torn pieces of the bacon, 1 can (28 oz) tomato
puré, 2 tsp. sugar, ½ cup chopped sundried tomatoes (optional). Bring to a
boil, then lower heat to low simmer. Adjust seasonings with salt and peper.
Make sure meat and vegetables are covered with liquid. Cover and cook with occasional stirring for 4
hours. If necessary, thin with a bit of hot water or broth.
Serve over
hot rotini or rigatoni with freshly grated Assiago or Parmesan cheese. The
meaty Ragú keeps well in the
refrigerator for several days and can be reheated for serving as a lunch
dish on a crusty Italian roll with or without melted Provolone cheese.
The salvage
project was more time consuming than planned. But the results were tasty and it
is now March, so no need to feel too guilty about resolutions. However, next
time I want to make pork ragú, I may just start with coarsely ground pork and
some sweet Italian sausage.
(I. Winicov Harrington lives in Waldoboro and is the
author of “How to Eat Healthy and Well for Less than $5.00 a Day: the
Smart-Frugal Food Plan”; website: www.winicov-harrington.com)
