October 2, 2010

dinner - red-wine pork ragu pappardelle with summer tomatoes

I love it when a plan comes together.

This was tonight's dinner, a red-wine pulled pork ragu on pappardelle, topped with some late summer cherry heirloom tomatoes that took 5 days to prepare.

I made the chicken and vegetable stocks on Tuesday; marinated the pork on Wednesday; slow-cooked the pork for 5 hours, pulled it, and reduced the jus on Thursday; and put it all together on Saturday. No, I didn't make the pasta myself - that would've been awesome though wouldn't it?

Result? A ragu with such a range of flavour, perfect balance of sweet and tart, and overflowing with sweet sweet porky goodness. I prepared it using Chef Pino Posteraro's signature method: I cooked the dish in 1 pan, boiling the pasta and reducing the sauce all at the same time, essentially like a pilaf, except with pasta. The intense concentration of flavour that goes into the noodle is amazing! Give it a shot if you haven't before! And you gotta use stock and wine, not water of course.

Now, dessert :-)

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