Andy Ward & Jenny Rosenstrach's Pork Shoulder Ragu
Author Notes: On their blog Dinner: A Love Story, Andy Ward & Jenny Rosenstrach call this "Instant Dinner Party," because you can make the ragu completely ahead, even a day or two before. Whether you serve it that day or reheat it for a party tomorrow, "It will make the house smell amazing," Jenny told me, "Which, in my opinion, counts for more than flower arrangements when having dinner guests. Best of all, if there are kids coming over, and they don't like the ragu, we can usually count on them liking the pasta with a little Parm—so it minimizes drama on that end, too." Whatever ragu is left is a boon: over polenta, in tacos, on sandwiches, or frozen and awaiting more dinners. Recipe adapted slightly from Dinner: A Love Story (Ecco, 2012). —Genius Recipes
Serves: 6
Prep time: 5 min
Cook time: 4 hrs 19 min
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2
pounds to 2 1/2 pound boneless pork shoulder roast (up to 2 1/2 pounds), tied with twine if there are any loose pieces
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1
small onion, chopped
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1
garlic clove, minced
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Salt and pepper
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2
tablespoons olive oil
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1
small pat butter
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1
28-ounce can whole tomatoes, with juice
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1
cup red wine
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5
sprigs fresh thyme
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5
sprigs fresh oregano
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1
Small handful of fennel seeds
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1
tablespoon hot sauce, for smokiness (Andy used Trader Joe's Hot Chili Sauce, but Sriracha and Tabasco both work great, too)
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1
pound Pappardelle
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1
handful Freshly grated Parmesan
- Preheat oven to 325° F. Liberally salt and pepper the pork roast. Add olive oil and butter to large Dutch oven and heat over medium-high until butter melts, but does not burn. Add pork roast to pan and brown on all sides, about 8 to 10 minutes in all.
- Add the onion and garlic and saute for 1 minute. Add tomatoes, wine, thyme, oregano, fennel, and hot sauce and bring to a boil. Cover, and put in oven.
- Braise for 3 to 4 hours, turning every hour or so. Add more liquid (water, wine, or tomato sauce) if needed. (The liquid should come to about 1/3 of the way up the pork.) Meat is done when it’s practically falling apart. Put on a cutting board (remove the sprigs of herbs at the same time) and pull it apart with two forks, then add back to pot and stir.
- Cook 1 to 2 pounds pasta according to package directions. When it’s is ready, put into individual bowls and top with ragu and lots of Parm. Alternately, toss the pasta with the ragu and a bit of pasta cooking water, as needed, and top with Parm.
- This recipe is a Community Pick!
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I first came across this recipe via Dinner A Love Story - where Jenny Rosenstrach also shares a recipe where you tuck the left over pork ragu into puff pastry to make delicious pork ragu pies. A gem of a recipe.
When I first made this, the store didn’t have pork shoulder so I used boneless ribs. It turned out fantastic, so when I made it again, I was disappointed with how much excess fat there was in the pot. It was so much I couldn’t eat it as it was. I went back to using boneless pork ribs and will continue to do so—I much prefer how this cut of meat turns out.
I buy those boneless ribs all the time- they are cheap, easy to handle and good for small recipes. I have looked at that ragu recipe for YEARS but never made it as I was intimidated by a huge pork shoulder. Now I will try it with the ribs!
The flavor was great but I agree with previous comments...it was a bit watery and there was virtually no sauce. I'd make it again but increase the quantity of tomatoes.
Just made this tonight -followed the instructions exactly, had 2.5# pork shoulder roast and cooked in my Le Cruset dutch oven with the lid on the entire time, used San Marzano tomatoes. I found that, while the flavor was excellent - there was not much "sauce", more like shredded pork on pappardelle. I think next time I will at least do 2x the sauce. With just two of us, there will be at least 1/3 frozen so the extra sauce is a necessity.
Turned out delish! Wasn't watery, I did put the cover slightly off pot in last hour. The only thing I would change would be to put fennel in cheese cloth as I didn't like chewing on the fennel seeds and I have some friends that can't eat seeds. I used the country style ribs and I don't think any difference than a roast.
Outrageously good!! Sauce was not one bit watery. Tomatoes melted ... it was divine. Didn't have fennel, tossed in a couple bay leaves, otherwise made to a T and wouldn't change a thing!
Found a can of fire roasted tomatoes in the bowls of the cabinet! Will be using those and add crushed if need more liquid. Also the butcher did not have a small pork shoulder so I purchased country style ribs (which are cut from the shoulder) tied them together and it is in the oven now. I will report back. Thanks Kathy H
I accidentally bought crushed tomatoes in juice instead of whole tomatoes. Do you think I can use them?
Yes!
I am making this for the third year for Christmas Eve dinner--my family asks for it and loves it! Thank you for such a lovely and easy recipe that is absolutely delicious every time. Will make it two days ahead, so simple!
I don't have a Dutch oven. Will it work in a crockpot?
Katrina - Yes. Brown the meat, onion and garlic, deglaze pan with the wine, put everything in the crock pot. My crock pot tends to cook on the hot side, so cook I it on low for about 6 hours.
any advice on how to do it sous vide?
There is no need to try to make this dish sous vide, and no advantage either.
Thanks JP - I actually won't have time for the 3-4 hour oven cooking so was hoping to have it timed with the sous vide so I don't have to monitor it.
Hi imn. This dish needs the slow oven braise to carmelize, develop complex flavors, and concentrate the liquid. It is pretty hands off once in the oven. You would need to sous vide for a much longer time and will never achieve the same result.
Making this yet again for company that will be here for next weekend. Will freeze. It smells so good! An effortless dinner next week, a great bottle of wine, maybe a simple antipasto first- a no fail plan.
Made it Saturday night to serve Sunday. It was delicious! I tweaked a couple of things. First, after I browned the shoulder I removed it from the dutch oven and then added the onions and garlic. After the saute I deglazed with the wine, then put the rest of the ingredients in, mixed them together, then put the shoulder back in the dutch oven. Also I used a larger can (35oz) of tomatoes plus I included about 1 1/2 tablespoons of tomato paste. I left it in the oven for three hours, turning the shoulder ever hour. At the beginning of the third hour I left the lid slightly open to reduce the sauce as some of the comments remarked it was watery. When I reheated the ragu the next day I needed to add water to it because it had thickened so much. But it was fantastic and I would definitely make it again!
Made it again recently and it was as delicious as ever. I add lots of extra tomatoes. Freezes beautifully. A favorite in our house and with guests.
Delicious! We tweaked based on the contents of our pantry: 2 15-oz cans diced tomatoes + couple T tomato paste instead of canned whole tomatoes, used dried oregano, added a leftover parmesan rind, left uncovered in the oven because it seemed too liquidy, and added a couple sprinkles of sherry vinegar at the end. It did end up looking just like the picture though.=P The wine we used was a carmenere.
Mine looked exactly like the photo. Simply divine.
This was delicious! We followed the recipe pretty closely, and although the sauce wasn't quite as "red" as the photo, it was excellent, so we decided against adding extra tomatoes/sauce.
As others noted, this didn't look like the picture, but I found this exact recipe on another site, written by the authors, and it looked different than here too.
I doubled the recipe, followed the advice of the commenters here by increasing the sauce and tomatoes - I went 1.5 cups/cans per batch size. Cooked down all day and held well until our family arrived, which was two hours later than anticipated.
To finish, I tossed the al dente pasta with some sauce in a saucepan. I added a small touch of pasta water and a small pat of butter. It was a beautiful dish and everyone raved that this was restaurant quality.
Although tasty, I was disappointed by the fact that it did not look at all like the picture. It was pale and the 'sauce' was watery. Had I read the comments I would have know to either double up on the tomatoes and wine or reduce the sauce...or both.
Loved the flavor of the sauce. But next time I would double the tomatoes and wine so it was more saucy than stew like, more desirable for us over pasta.
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