Pappardelle with Pork Ragu

Dinner | Italian

Prep time: 45 min Cook time: 4 min Servings: 4

This dish is a nod to Tuscany (Pappardelle al Cinghiale), rich, slow-cooked ragu tossed through fresh pappardelle. Traditionally, it’s made with wild boar from local hunts, but since that’s not easy to get your hands on here, I’ve swapped in pork shoulder as it has a similar fat content and connective tissue that responds to long braising in the same way. To get closer to that deeper, gamey complexity you’d get from boar, I marinate the pork overnight in red wine with juniper berries, cloves, rosemary and aromatics. That 24-hour marinade is where a significant amount of the character in the sauce comes from, so start the day before.

Guanciale is an important element to the base. It’s cured pig’s cheek with a higher fat content and a more intense, slightly funky cured flavour than bacon or pancetta. Rendering it low and slow first creates a rich fat medium for the soffritto. The ragu itself takes 4 hours at a gentle simmer, just ticking over rather than boiling. Boiling would tighten the meat fibres and cause the fat to render out aggressively, giving you a greasy, broken sauce. Lid on for most of the cook, lid off for the final hour to reduce and concentrate. The pasta is made fresh and rolled to order. Pappardelle’s wide, flat ribbons hold a heavy ragu like this far better than a narrow pasta would.

Ingredient Notes

Guanciale: Guanciale is cured pig’s cheek, and it’s a key flavour builder in the base. The fat content is higher than pancetta and the curing gives it a more intense, rounded flavour that pancetta can’t quite match. It’s available from good delis and Italian grocers. If you can’t find it, pancetta or speck are the best substitutes. Avoid regular bacon here, which is too smoky and sweet for this dish.

Red wine: The Tuscan tradition calls for Chianti, a Sangiovese-based wine with good acidity and earthy tannins that work well in a long braise. You don’t need to spend a lot, but use something you’d drink. The wine reduces significantly over 4 hours, so any harsh or overly tannic wine will concentrate those qualities. Montepulciano, Merlot or any medium-to-full-bodied red with decent acidity all work well.

Juniper berries: Juniper berries are the ingredient that most closely approximates the flavour of wild boar in the marinade. They add a resinous, slightly piney bitterness that cuts through the richness of pork fat and gives the sauce some of that wild game character. You’ll find them at specialty food stores and well-stocked supermarkets, usually in the spice aisle.

Equipment

Chopping board
Chef’s knife
Large bowl or deep container
Large heavy-based saucepan with lid
Pasta machine
Rolling pin
Cling film
Large saucepan
Deep saucepan
Tongs
Ladle

Ingredients

750g pork shoulder (or wild boar if available), diced
2 tbsp olive oil
100g Guanciale, finely diced
2 cloves garlic, smashed
1 brown onion, finely diced
1 carrot, finely diced
1 celery stick, finely diced
1 tbsp tomato paste (tomato puree)
2 bay leaves
2 sprigs rosemary
800g peeled tomatoes
Marinade
1 onion, peeled, cut into quarters
1 carrot, cut into large chunks
1 celery stick, cut into chunks
2 bay leaves
10 juniper berries
2 cloves
2 sprigs rosemary
3 cloves garlic
700ml bottle red wine (chianti, sangiovese, merlot, montepulciano)
Sea salt and black pepper
Pasta dough
300g ‘00’ flour, plus extra for dusting
3 eggs
2 tsp olive oil
½ tsp fine salt

Directions

Marinate the pork
Place the pork in a large bowl or deep plastic container. Add all the marinade ingredients and season with salt and pepper.
Stir gently to combine, then cover and refrigerate overnight, up to 24 hours.
Cook the pork ragu
Drain the pork from the marinade, reserving the liquid. Chop the pork into a fine dice (about 1cm).
Heat half the oil in a large heavy based saucepan on medium-low heat. Cook the guanciale for 8-10 minutes, until golden and crisp.
Add remaining oil and increase heat to medium. Add garlic and allow to bloom in oil for 1-2 minutes, until aromatic.
Stir in onion, carrot and celery and cook for 5 minutes, stirring occasionally, until softened and starting to colour.
Stir in tomato paste and pork and cook, stirring for 1 minute until well incorporated. Lightly crush the peeled tomatoes then add to the pan. Stir in the reserved marinade liquid, bay leaves and rosemary.
Bring to a simmer, then cover and cook for 4 hours, stirring every 30 minutes and checking for doneness after 2½ hours. Remove the lid after the 1 hour mark. Don’t let it get to a boil, reduce the heat if you need to.
Prep the pasta dough
Place the flour in a mound on a clean work surface. Made an indent in the middle.
Crack the eggs into the middle, then drizzle in oil and the salt. Whisk the eggs with a fork then slowly begin to incorporate the flour from around the edges.
Continue mixing until all the flour is incorporated, then begin kneading the dough until smooth and elastic. Wrap the dough in cling wrap and refrigerate for at least 30 minutes to rest.
Roll out pasta dough
Lightly flour your clean work surface.
Divide the pasta dough in half and keep one covered while you work with the first. Roll the dough through a pasta machine on the biggest setting twice. Do an envelope fold on the sheet and press down to seal with your hands, then return to the pasta machine on the same setting. Roll it through twice more.
Turn the pasta machine setting down 1 notch, then pass the dough through twice. Continue to do this through each setting, until you have a long, thin pasta sheet (only use flour to dust the machine when necessary to avoid sticking). I generally just take it to the 2nd thinnest setting.
Slice the long pasta sheet into 30cm lengths, trimming the edges, then place on top of each other, dusting with flour in between, then fold over several times to make it shorter for cutting.
Slice the dough into 2.5cm wide strips, then carefully unravel the pasta strips. Repeat with the remaining dough portion.
Finish and serve
When the ragu is finished, transfer 4 portions worth (approximately 2 cups) to a deep saucepan and place over low heat. Make sure you remove the bay leaves, rosemary and whole spices. Any leftover ragu can be stored and used over the next couple of days.
Cook the pasta in a large saucepan of boiling salted water for 2½ - 3 minutes, keeping the water at a boil. Transfer to the ragu saucepan and toss to combine well, until all the pasta has gripped the sauce.
Plate and serve immediately.

Ingredients

Directions

Recipe notes