Andy Ward & Jenny Rosenstrach's Pork Shoulder Ragu

It’s simple, and it’s delicious. Make it!

Wonderful recipe and so easy! I did read all of the comments which are very helpful. I used a 1.5 pound pork shoulder, one 28 oz can of tomatoes and 1.5 cups of wine. I removed the pork after browning, deglazed the dutch oven with the wine before adding the onions and garlic. Turned every hour and halfway through added some cheese rinds from the freezer. After 4 hours, I removed the pork and let it rest then used an immersion blender to get a less chunky sauce. I think because I had a smaller cut of pork I had a perfect ratio of meat to sauce. This was delicious with just some grated parmesan on top. I'll be making this again! Perfect for colder weather.

made this after listening to the podcast. the taste was beyond expectations!

I followed the recipe pretty closely. As usual when braising meat, I generously salted the pork all over a couple of hours before cooking.

I read a lot of the comments before cooking, which caused me to use 2 cloves of garlic and to double the amount of wine.

I like some crustiness on meat, so I didn’t baste.

This is not exactly like anything I’ve had before, but my friends and I loved it.

Made it two days in advance, in part just for practical reasons and in part to remove some of the fat.

I’ll for sure be making it again!

I made some leeks (just sliced leeks and butter) to serve on the side. One of my friends mixed some in the sauce and was delighted.

I really liked the subtle fennel flavor.

Having read the other reviews firs, I kicked up the flavor. I really like the ease of this recipe...most of the work in the oven. I did tie the meat to keep it together. Seasoned and seared it only in olive oil so as not to burn the butter. When browned, I removed the meat to a plate, poured off some of the grease, added the butter and a bit more olive oil with the onions and garlic. I used an med-lg onion, 4 cloves of garlic, about a tsp hot pepper flake for a couple of minutes before adding the wine (used a lovely zin), herbs, tomato, hot sauce, fennel seed and put the meat back in, covered it and put it in the oven. Set a timer and turned the meat every hour. When I took it out to turn it, I skimmed a little of the fat, there was quite a lot. I know this is the "flavor" but I think there was enough to coat the pasta without being overly oily and my cut of meat had plenty of fat. I served the ragu over rigatoni with lots of parm..big hit.

So much potential.. so bland! Season the meat, amp up the spice and increase the cooking liquid and it could be 5 star.

This is a pretty niche suggestion, but for the Australians on here, subbing 600g of Kangaroo rump for the pork shoulder is great - only nice roo I've ever made.

I should note that the original recipe is of course, perfect.

This is really good, and so easy. Made as written except used red pepper flakes instead of hot sauce. There was a lot of fat pooling on the sauce at the end of the cooking time. Next time, I would make a day in advance to facilitate removal of fat. I scooped some of the fat out with a spoon and it was fine. The sauce needed salting, plus I added a splash of colatura for depth and a splash of red wine for verve. Served with dollops of herbed ricotta on top, in addition to grated romano cheese. To stretch the sauce a little further, I might add an additional 14.5 oz can of tomatoes. Divine!

Question: Is it too spicy for kids with the hot sauce or more just smoky?

I do the braise in a pressure cooker—one hour, natural release—and it comes out great. Excellent recipe. Only addition: A squirt of anchovy paste from a tube, when the wine goes in to deglaze after the onions and garlic have sauteed.

This is very good and will be on rotation in our house.
I followed the recipe exactly, and next time will incorporate the recommendations that Marissa S. has listed in the comment section.
My husband (Italian) said that the pork was very tender and the sauce was perfectly proportioned with the pasta.
Highly recommended.

We've made this recipe at least monthly for 3+ years now. It's our go to favorite recipe (from Food52!). Instead of only Fennel Seeds, we use half Fenugreek Seeds and half Fennel Seeds, as well as double the amount called for of Hot Oil from our local Chinese restaurant. Nothing will make your home smell more welcoming and the meal more mouth watering!

This recipe is my "go-to" for dinner parties! I've made it at least six or seven times and no one has ever been sad after eating this deliciousness.

How much is "a small pat" of butter in... literally any other form of measurement?

Good recipe. I had shoulder steaks so I just browned them individually and stacked them up. Used fennel (about the same amount as onion) instead of seeds. When I pulled the meat I spooned off some fat then used a light dusting of blending flour.

What a great recipe for dinner parties! Will be throwing this into the rotation since it's such a breeze to prep for large groups. I did double the recipe and it worked out well (party of 12 with plenty for everyone) with plenty of sauce using the amount of tomatoes prescribed in the recipe. I tweaked the cooking instructions a bit so here are my notes:

- Put the fennel seeds in an herb bag so that they don't get stuck in people's teeth when they eat the pasta.

- Separate the juice from the tomatoes and squeeze the juice from the whole tomatoes to remove as much of the water as possible (reserve the juice in one bowl and put the squeezed tomato chunks in a separate bowl). After browning the pork shoulder on all 6 sides, remove the shoulder from the pan and spoon out the fat into a bowl leaving just enough to cover the bottom of the pan (reserve the fat for later use). Stir in the garlic for about a minute just to get the oil fragrant, but do not let the garlic get brown. Then, add the squeezed tomato chunks and turn the heat up to medium high to caramelize the tomato pieces, stirring every minute of so. This should take ~5-10 minutes. Once the tomatoes are nicely broken down, add the onion and stir every minute or so until the onions are translucent and soft. Finally, add the liquids (tomato juice, wine, hot sauce (I used tobasco and it was perfectly spicy for me)) and herbs.

- REFRIGERATE the ragu overnight or until the fat solidifies, remove as much fat from the ragu as possible.

-REHEAT: take the pork out of the sauce before reheating for service. Shred the pork with two forks and reserve on the side. BLEND the sauce slightly so that its almost uniform but still slightly chunky. Reheat the sauce over medium low heat. Combine the pork and sauce heat for 1 more minute. Only add the pork when you're about to serve that the pork doesn't get dry. Toss the pasta in the sauce and serve immediately.

Wow, as delicious as it looks! We followed the advice of a few others and added a 14 oz can of diced tomatoes (didn’t have whole tomatoes on hand), and added almost an another cup of wine. We had plenty of sauce to our taste :)

Soooooo good! We make this all the time. Just for us and for company as well.

I am making this tomorrow and wondered if anyone has tried using fresh fennel in place of the seeds. Thanks!

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.