I was looking at my new Scott Conant cookb00k Peace Love and Pasta and decided to try one of the recipes. I couldn’t find the pasta or the cheese that he used so I will share with you what I made using the pasta and Parmigiano Reggiano cheese. I do not recall ever using rigatoni pasta shape before and it was absolutely lovely with this sauce. So much so I bought 3 more boxes, ya I also think there was a sale for buying 3 boxes so it worked out for me.

We were having family here for the weekend and when I made this recipe last week I knew it would be a great meal to share with everyone. The ragu recipe says you only need 2 cups of it for a meal for 6 so I didn’t need to double the recipe. We had 10 for dinner Friday night along with a salad and some garlic bread, life was good!

Pork Ragu over Rigatoni

Not your typical ragu, but flavorful, fulfilling and a great meal to share with your family

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Total Time 2 hours hrs

Course dinner

Cuisine Italian

Servings 6

Ingredients

  

Ragu

• 2 pound boneless pork shoulder/butt trimmed and diced
• Kosher salt
• 3 ounces pancetta diced
• 1 medium onion diced
• 3 medium carrots peeled/diced
• 2 celery stalks diced
• 2 cloves garlic minced
• 15 ounce crushed tomatoes
• pinch crushed red pepper flakes
• 2 cups chicken stock
• 5-6 basil leaves

Sauce

• 1 pound box Rigatoni
• 6 cloves garlic thinly sliced
• ½ teaspoon crushed red pepper
• ¼ cup extra-virgin olive oil
• 1 teaspoon dried oregano
• ¼ cup dry white wine
• 2 cups pork ragu
• 1 cup marinara sauce
• 6 tablespoons unsalted butter
• 2 tablespoons parsley chopped
• 6 tablespoons freshly grated Parmigiano-Reggiano cheese

Instructions

 

Ragu

• Trim and dice the pork butt, season with Kosher salt

  In a heavy bottom pan or Dutch oven, sear the pork until they are nicely browned, approx. 10 minutes. remove pork from pan and set aside. NOTE: you may need to do this is batches.
• Add the diced pancetta and cook until the fat has rendered down. About 5 minutes. Add the diced onion, carrots, celery and garlic continue cooking until the vegetables are caramelized roughly 10 minutes. Add the tomatoes and simmer until the pan is almost dry. about 12 minutes. Add the pork and cover with the chicken stock. Make sure to cover the pork. Add the basil leaves. Cover and simmer over low heat for 1½ to 2 hours until the pork is tender. Skim off the fat, season with salt and crushed red pepper.
preparing for the pasta you will use half of the recipe, you can freeze the other half for a month. Or share it with another family.

Pasta and Sauce

• Bring a pot of salty water to boil. Add the box of rigatoni and cook according to the instructions, minus 2-3 minutes. You will finish cooking it in the sauce.
• In a large sauté pan add the olive oil, garlic and crushed red pepper over medium heat. Cook until the garlic is lightly cooked but be careful not to burn it. Add the oregano and quickly deglaze the pan with white wine, scraping up any bits. Add the pork ragu and marinara sauce and stir to combine. Set aside 1 cup of pasta water before draining the pasta.
• Add the al dente pasta to the ragu sauce and simmer for a couple of minutes. Add a tablespoon or so of pasta water to loosen up the sauce.
• Remove from heat and add the butter, parsley and Parmigiano and stir to combine. Divide into bowls and serve with extra cheese.

Keyword family dinner, Pork Ragu, Rigatoni