Pork Pappardelle

Pork Pappardelle

Got home at 6:30pm after picking up SSO. Supper needed cooking, what to do. SO was at home sick, so she had enough energy to cook up some ground pork from our local butcher and boil some water for pasta, but not much else. Not much for veggies in the fridge.  Some almost old celery......an onion as always, this time red.......garlic cloves in the cupboard.......well there's the start of a soffritto base. There's always a big can of tomatoes.  Aha, some fresh oregano leaves and fresh chives. Ok, this will be alright.

I just love the big, wide egg noodles. This turned out like a nice thick ragout of sorts, in the general "main dish stew" sense, if not the slow cooked meat sense. A good dose of chilies and some brown sugar added the spice and sweetness.

If I made this 5 years ago, it would have been probably pretty tasteless. I wasn't so enlightened then about fresh herbs...garlic cloves instead of powder makes a huge difference, as does the fresh oregano leaves instead of dried. Canned tomatoes is really not as bad as you may think. Actually there's an argument to be made for good quality canned tomatoes being better than your average tasteless supermarket variety.  One of my favourite chefs Michael Smith even has a quick video tip about this. Mmmmm, leftovers tomorrow at work will be great.

Next time: would make it even spicier than I did

Me: 8/10
SO: 8/10
SSO: 3/10


Pork Pappardelle

Ingredients

• For around 4 main-dish portions, start with 1 1/2 to 2 lbs good quality ground pork
• 250g pappardelle or similar wide egg noodle
• 1 or 2 fresh garlic cloves, small dice
• small splash of canola or grapeseed oil
• a couple sticks of celery and/or carrots and/or bell pepeprs cut to dice
• 28oz can of tomatoes (we had whole tomatoes, so I took scissors and cut them up in the can)
• fresh herbs - we happened to have oregano and chives
• fresh chilies or chili powder, and/or hot chili sauce to your taste
• 1 to 2 Tbsp brown sugar, to your taste

Method

1. Put a big pot of water on to boil.
2. Cook up the ground pork in a large pan and remove to a bowl. There should (hopefully) not be much fat left.
3. In the same pan, heat up the oil, stir in garlic and veggies. Cook for a couple minutes, stirring.
4. Add the tomatoes, herbs, chilies and sugar. Cover, stirring occasionally.
5. Cook the pasta, probably 7 minutes or so for dry stuff.
6. When al dente, drain the pasta, add some to plates or pasta bowls, and ladle on the meat sauce.