Sunday Dinner: Pork Ragu with Fresh Herbs

One of the things I love about the warmer months in C-U is that I can grow my own herbs. Sure, they're available year round in the grocery store, and I do avail myself of those plastic packages during the winter sometimes, but it's so wonderful to be able to just step out the back door and clip them.

This recipe, from Michele Scicolone's wonderful book 1,000 Italian Recipes, calls for basil, mint, rosemary, and sage. For some reason I didn't grow sage this year (well, pineapple sage, yes, but I didn't think that would work too well in this sauce), so I used parsley instead. A delicious sauce indeed, one that I'll make again and again. I can't wait to try it with the fresh sage. Oh, and there are fennel seeds in the ragù, too—I love the flavor of fennel with pork.

The author notes that you can use frozen or dried herbs, except for the basil—she recommends staying away from dried basil and suggests using flat-leaf parsley if you can't get fresh basil.

Pork Ragù with Fresh Herbs
From 1,000 Italian Recipes, by Michele Scicolone

4 tablespoons olive oil
1 medium onion, finely chopped
1/2 cup chopped fresh basil or flat-leaf parsley
1/4 cup chopped fresh mint leaves or 1 teaspoon dried
1 tablespoon chopped fresh sage or 1 teaspoon dried
1 teaspoon chopped fresh rosemary or 1/2 teaspoon dried
1/2 teaspoon fennel seeds
1 pound ground pork
Salt and freshly ground black pepper
1/2 cup dry red wine
1 28-ounce can imported Italian peeled tomatoes with their juice, chopped

Put the oil, onion, all the herbs, and the fennel seeds in a large saucepan and turn the heat to medium. Cook, stirring occasionally, until the onion is tender and golden, about 10 minutes.Stir in the pork, then the salt and pepper to taste. Cook, stirring frequently to break up the lumps, until the pork loses its pink color, about 10 minutes. Add the wine and simmer 5 minutes. Stir in the tomatoes and cook 1 hour or until the sauce is thickened.Serve hot. Can be made ahead and stored in an airtight container in the refrigerator up to 3 days or in the freezer up to 2 months.
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As you can see, I used fresh tomatoes instead of canned, since tomatoes can still be had at farmers' market (these were Romas from Blue Moon Farm; I put probably 8 or 9 of them in). I almost never peel fresh tomatoes before putting them in sauce, but I'm not all that fond of the skins, so what ends up happening is that I pick the skins off the tomato pieces as they're cooking. Once the tomatoes get warm, the skins start to curl up and come off, so it's really not hard to remove the skins, except that you burn your fingertips and end up with a spoon rest that looks like this:Hey, I never said I was Marcella Hazan. It works for me.

Ms. Scicolone has this to say about the ragù and the pasta it was served with:

At the home of Natale Liberale in Puglia, my husband and I ate this ground pork ragù on troccoli, fresh square-cut spaghetti similar to the pasta alla chitarra of Abruzzo. It was made by his mother Enza, who showed me how she cut sheets of homemade egg pasta using a special ridged wooden rolling pin. The ragù is also good on orecchiette or fresh fettucine.

I didn't make my own pasta, and troccoli is not available in these parts, so I procured some egg pasta at World Harvest International & Gourmet Foods. I opted for pappardelle, mainly because I thought my dear husband would especially enjoy the wide noodles (I was right). World Harvest carries a mind-boggling variety of pasta, by the way.It's the only store in town where I've found the bucatini for Bucatini all'Amatriciana. World Harvest also carries my favorite olive oil in town, but that's a From the Pantry post for next time.

If you try this sauce, I hope you enjoy it as much as we did. Buon appetito!