Pork Ragu

1 minute read

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I recently discovered that you can make ragu with different meats. I also thought bolognese, with ground beef, was the most common and preferred way. When I discovered pork ragu, it felt like a perfect match for pork shoulder (my favourite cut) and pressure cooking.

Pressure cooking reduces cooking time from 3+ hours to 1 hour and is completely hands-off. The result is a dish ragu that accentuates the tomato and spice flavours more so than bolognese. The collagen from pork shoulder or rib tips adds a lot of body to the sauce.

At the end of the cooking process, the rendered fat will rise to the surface as a separate layer. This is because pressure cooking is a gentle process, with little agitation. All it takes a rapid boil to emulsify the sauce. The abundance of collagen easily emulsifies the fat into a thick, luxurious sauce.

Pork Ragu:

This recipe is adapted from Spoon Fork Bacon. It is adapted for pressure cooking.

Recipe

  • 2 lb or pork shoulder
  • 250 g onion, diced
  • 200 g carrots, chunked
  • 2 celery stalks, sliced
  • 3 garlic cloves, smashed
  • Spices (oregano, thyme, rosemary, bay leaf)
  • 2 tbsp tomato paste
  • 1 cup red wine
  • 1 can (28 ounce) tomatoes

Ingredient Notes

Pork can contain bones or cartilage. The bones can be removed before shredding and cartilage will gelatinize to form body of sauce.

Technique

  1. Brown meat and set aside.
  2. Saute onions, spices, and tomato paste.
  3. Deglaze with wine or stock. Reduce to a syrup, 50%.
  4. Add pork back and pressure cook for 40 minutes.
  5. Remove pork. Debone if necessary. Roughly shred pork.
  6. Add pork back and bring to boil.
  7. Boil rapidly for a minute to emulsify the sauce.

Cooking Notes

Reduce wine to a syrup, if using a pressure cooker. Otherwise there will be too excess liquid.

Browning meat, deglazing, and reducing is recommended to be done in a wide pan. This is much faster than attempting to do so directly in the instant pot, which would take about 3 times longer.