Braised Pork Ragu Pappardelle

Braised Pork Ragu Pappardelle

Nothing beats a bowl of pork ragu with pappardelle—slow-cooked, melt-in-your-mouth pork in a rich red wine tomato sauce, tossed with wide pasta for the perfect restaurant-quality meal at home.

Course Main Course

Cuisine American, Italian

Keyword Braised Pork Ragu, Braised Pork Ragu Pappardelle, pork ragu

Prep Time 10

Cook Time 3 20

Total Time 3 30

Servings

Calories 606kcal

Author Julia

Ingredients

3 pounds boneless pork shoulder cut into 6 even pieces
salt and pepper to taste
3 tablespoons olive oil
1 large brown or yellow onion diced
2 medium carrots peeled and diced
2 stalks celery diced
4 cloves garlic minced
4 sprigs fresh thyme
1 sprig fresh rosemary
1 sprig fresh sage
2 tablespoons tomato paste
1 cup red wine
28 ounces crushed tomatoes (canned)
2 cups chicken stock
¼ cup heavy cream
1 pound pappardelle pasta cooked and drained, 1-2 cups pasta water saved

Garnish

parmesan freshly grated
leaves fresh thyme optional

US Customary - Metric

Instructions

Preheat your oven to 325 degrees.
Heat the olive oil in a large Dutch oven that has a lid over high heat while you coat your pork pieces generously with salt and pepper.
Brown each piece on all sides, working in batches, about 7 minutes per batch. Don’t overcrowd the pot with the pork or it can inhibit browning. Once browned, remove from the Dutch oven, put on a tray or plate, and set aside.
With the rendered fat still in the Dutch oven, reduce your heat to medium and saute the onions, carrots, and celery until the onion becomes translucent, but not browned, 5 minutes.
Add the garlic, thyme, rosemary, and sage, sauteing until fragrant, about 2 minutes.
Add the tomato paste and cook until darkened, about another minute.
Turn the heat on high and deglaze the pot with the red wine. Cook off the alcohol for about 5 minutes before adding the crushed tomatoes and chicken stock. Stir to combine.
Add the pork pieces and juices back into the pot, cover, and braise in the oven for 3 - 3 ½ hours, or until the pork shreds easily when pulled with a fork. Check at the 2 ½ hour mark and add more time if necessary.
15 minutes before the pork is finished cooking, make the pasta according to the instructions on the package. Save 1-2 cups of pasta water.
Once the pork is finished cooking, place the Dutch oven on a heat proof surface, remove the pork pieces, placing them on a tray or into a bowl, and shred to your desired consistency. You can make fine shreds or leave some larger chunks.
Stir in the heavy cream and ½ cup pasta water at a time, until you reach the desired consistency prior to placing the pork back into the sauce, stirring gently. Remember that once you add the pork back in it will thicken significantly, so make sure you add enough pasta water to balance out the ragu. Season with salt and pepper if necessary.
For each serving, toss the desired amount of pasta into the ragu until coated and the sauce sticks to the pasta. Serve immediately, garnish with freshly grated parmesan cheese, and tiny leaves of thyme if you wish. Enjoy!
I provide helpful step-by-step photos BELOW this recipe card. Also, below I provide 3 alternative cooking methods for pork ragu: Stovetop Method, Slow Cooker Method, and Instant Pot / Pressure Cooker Method. Scroll down if interested.

Notes

Don’t crowd the pot when you’re searing and browning the pork. It will toughen the pork as well as take longer to brown.
How to cut pork for ragu? Some recipes tell you to cut the pork into 1” cubes, but that doesn’t leave the possibility for long strands of pork once cooked. However, if you like the shorter strands, you can cut the pork into smaller pieces, but you will spend more time browning.
Reduce wine: You should cook out as much of the alcohol from the red wine as you can. Even though it cooks for a long time in the oven, evaporating the alcohol prior to this just ensures your end product is more focused on the tomato and pork flavors than the alcohol.
Add Parmesan: To add even MORE umami to this dish, you can mix in some parmesan cheese to the ragu sauce. Add as much as your heart desires, but remember to thin out the sauce with the pasta water for even coating of the noodles.
How to cook pork ragu in a slow cooker: You can definitely make this recipe in a crock pot sans oven. Follow the directions up until it needs to braise and instead transfer all everything into a crockpot. You can keep it on low for up to 8 hours.

Storage & Reheating Tips

Refrigerate: The cooled ragu and cooled pasta can be stored separately in air tight containers for up to 5 days in the fridge. You can, of course, store sauced pasta (everything mixed together) as well, it will just get soggier that way.
To reheat, combine the pasta, ragu sauce, and a tablespoon of water (this helps rehydrate everything a little) into a bowl and heat until it reaches your desired temperature.
Freeze: I don’t recommend freezing the pasta, but you can freeze the sauce. It’s best to put the cooled sauce in gallon freezer ziploc bags, remove all the air, and make them flat. Place them flat into your freezer. They can last up to 3 months.
To defrost, place on a plate overnight and reheat with a fresh batch of pasta once ready to eat.

You will need these supplies

cutting board
knife
large Dutch oven
tongs
grater or microplaner
forks or meat claws for shredding

Nutrition