Pork shoulder and nduja ragu with pappardelle

I cooked this dish for some friends a few weeks ago and knew I had to write up the recipe. It is a white ragu through the inclusion of milk which keeps things light and also takes on the fragrance of the citrus and spices in the recipe really nicely. I love adding nduja, a spicy pork paste from Calabria, to this recipe for an extra kick but it will still be delicious if you can’t get your hands on some (although it’s definitely more readily available now than it used to be). I use fresh pappardelle in this recipe but you could also use dried pappardelle or even tagliatelle or fettuccine.

| Serves 4 |

INGREDIENTS

For the ragu

600g pork shoulder

1 medium onion, finely diced

1 celery stick, finely diced

1 small or 1/2 large carrot, finely diced

40g tomato puree

50g nduja

150ml white or rose wine

250ml chicken stock or water

250ml whole milk

2 bay leaves

Whole nutmeg

1 cinnamon stick

Small strip lemon peel

Small strip orange peel

40g butter, cubed

Handful of chopped flat leaf parsley

Parmesan for serving 

For the pasta

4 eggs

400g 00 pasta flour

Semolina flour 

METHOD

Heat a casserole pot over a medium-high heat. Add a tbsp of olive oil and brown the pork for about 2 minutes on each side. Set aside.

In the same pot, pour in enough olive oil to cover the base of the pan and add the onion, celery and carrot. Sweat them down over a low heat until very soft and translucent, around 25 minutes. 

Turn the heat up to medium-high again and add the tomato puree and nduja. Break down with the back of a spoon and continuously stir until cooked through.

Pour in the wine and cook off until reduced by half, then add the chicken stock/water and milk. Return the pork to the pan along with the bay leaves, cinnamon stick, whole nutmeg and citrus peels and bring to the boil. 

As soon as the pot’s boiling, turn right down to a simmer and cook the pork for 2-3 hours with the lid on, or until the meat falls apart easily with a fork. After about 30 minutes, skim some fat that will have formed on the surface and keep doing this every so often.

Meanwhile, make the pasta dough. Weigh out the 00 pasta flour and make a well in the middle for your eggs. Crack in the eggs, and either using your fingers or a fork, start swirling in a circular motion to start incorporating the flour into the eggs. You only want to do this until the liquid is thick enough so it doesn’t spill all over the work surface, this is important because if it starts to form a dough too soon it becomes harder to incorporate the rest of the flour. Use both hands to push the remaining flour from the outside until the middle. Fold and press the dough until all flour is absorbed and the dough comes together.

Knead for around 10 minutes or until smooth, elastic and the dough bounces back easily. 

Rest in cling film or with a bowl over for 30 minutes.

Cut your pasta dough in half and pop the other half back in the cling film. Dust your work surface with some 00 or semolina flour and flatten it out with your fingers. Set the pasta machine at its widest setting and roll the pasta through it.

Roll it out to the next setting on the machine and then fold the pasta in half. Set it back to 0 and roll the pasta through. Repeat this process 5-6 times, on the last two folds try to fold as neatly as possible so the pasta shape stays uniform. Keep dusting with flour if it starts to feel too sticky.

Cut the pasta into two to make it a more manageable length, then roll each piece through each setting, starting on widest and finishing at the point when you can see your hand through the dough when you hold it up, on my Marcato Atlas this is setting 6. 

Repeat these steps with the remaining pasta dough.

You could then choose to cut the pasta with the pasta cutting attachment, either tagliatelle or fettuccine would be nice, or cut it by hand into pappardelle strips.

Take a sheet of the pasta and dust literally with semolina flour, then roll it into a log with the shortest side facing you. Using a sharp knife, cut roughly 1 inch strips. You can cut off each end first to make it neater, if you’d like.

To serve: Discard the aromatics including the bay leaves, nutmeg and citrus peels. Remove the pork from the sauce and shred with two forks. Check the consistency of the sauce before returning the meat, if it still appears to be too liquidy, put the pan over a high heat and reduce until it easily coats the back of a spoon. Return the pork to the sauce and check for seasoning, bearing in mind you’ll be adding salty pasta water soon. 

Bring a large pan of water to a rolling boil. Season generously with salt until it tastes like the sea. Add the pappardelle and cook until al dente, this should only take a couple of minutes if that. While pasta cooks, bring 1 ladleful of ragu per person to a boil in a large frying pan. Add cooked pasta to sauce and toss to coat along with butter, chopped parsley and a little pasta cooking water. Check for seasoning and serve with plenty of freshly grated Parmesan.

Cover and store remaining ragu in the refrigerator for up to 1 week, or in the freezer for up to 3 months. Return to a boil before using.