Italian Braised Pork Ragu

Italian Braised Pork Ragu, a delicious Italian classic that features pork ribs slowly stewed in tomato sauce until tender.

Course Main Course

Cuisine Italian

Prep Time 10

Cook Time 3

Servings people

Calories 908kcal

Author Pina Bresciani

Ingredients

3 tablespoon olive oil
1.5 kg pork back ribs
1 carrot peeled and chopped into 2 pieces
½ white onion with stem kept on
2 celery stalks cut into 4 pieces total
¾ cup dry white wine
3 680 mL jars tomato passata (crushed strained tomatoes)
salt and pepper to taste
500 grams rigatoni pasta
grated parmigiano reggiano for serving

Instructions

Prepare the ribs: remove the silver skin from the back of the ribs, and cut into pieces so that each piece contains 2 ribs. Sprinkle the ribs with salt and pepper on all sides.
Heat a large heavy bottomed pot over medium heat and add the olive oil.
Once oil is heated, add the ribs to the pot, and let the ribs brown on all sides.
Add the white wine to the pot and scrape the bottom of the pan with a wooden spoon to release any brown bits that may have stuck to the bottom.
Let the alcohol evaporate off (a few minutes), and add the tomato passata. Stir.
Add the onion, celery and carrot pieces. Stir again, and season with salt and pepper if necessary.
Let the sauce come to a boil.
Turn the heat down to low (lowest setting on your stove) and partially cover the pot with a lid.
Let the sauce cook down for 2.5-4 hours. The longer you cook the sauce, the more tender the pork ribs will be.
Once sauce is done, remove the celery, onion and carrot pieces.
Remove the ribs from the sauce and set aside to eat as a main course. Alternatively: shred the pork meat and combine with the sauce.
Cook the pasta in boiling salted water. When al dente, drain the pasta, return to the pot, and add the sauce to the pot. Stir pasta and sauce together until well combined. Note you may have extra sauce left, feel free to use it another time. Alternatively: add the sauce to a large pan, warm it up and add the cooked pasta to the pan, and mix it all together until combined - this is how to get restaurant quality pasta at home.
Plate the pasta, and top with grated parmigiano reggiano.

Video

Notes

Keep the stem on the onion so that it doesn't separate in the sauce - you will remove it at the end, and keeping the stem on will make it easier to remove.
Pasta to use: Traditionally with a pork ragu like this one, short pasta is used, like garganelli, elicoidali or rigatoni. But I think a long egg pasta would work well here too, like pappardelle, tagliatelle or fettuccine.
The traditional way to serve this sauce is to remove the ribs from the sauce, use the sauce for pasta, and serve the ribs in a separate course after the pasta. Alternatively you can shred the pork meat, add it to the sauce, and eat everything together, it's up to you!
If the sauce dries out too much while cooking, add some warm water to it
Keep the stem on the onion so that it doesn't separate in the sauce - you will remove it at the end, and keeping the stem on will make it easier to remove.
Pasta to use: Traditionally with a pork ragu like this one, short pasta is used, like garganelli, elicoidali or rigatoni. But I think a long egg pasta would work well here too, like pappardelle, tagliatelle or fettuccine.
The traditional way to serve this sauce is to remove the ribs from the sauce, use the sauce for pasta, and serve the ribs in a separate course after the pasta. Alternatively you can shred the pork meat, add it to the sauce, and eat everything together, it's up to you!
If the sauce dries out too much while cooking, add some warm water to it
You can use either pork back ribs or pork spare ribs in this dish - either will work well
You can use either pork back ribs or pork spare ribs in this dish - either will work well

Nutrition