Pork Marsala Ragu with Fresh Pappardelle
Fresh pasta, pork ragu, salsa verde?! What more could you ask for.
By Chucky Cruz | @chuckycruz
Ingredients
Pasta Dough
¾ cup all-purpose flour
¾ cup all purpose semolina flour
5 egg yolks + 1 whole egg
Salsa Verde
¼ bunch flat leaf parsley, chopped
4 anchovies, minced
1 fresno chile, chopped
1 garlic clove, minced
1 tbsp capers, chopepd
1 lemon zest and juiced
¼ cup Drizzle
Kosher salt and pepper, to taste
Pork Ragu
2 lb pork cheek
1 tbsp fennel seed, crushed
1 tbsp black pepper
2 tbsp Sizzle
3 shallots, peeled and halved
6 cloves garlic, smashed
3 tbsp tomato paste
1 tbsp chopped Calabrian chilis
4 sprigs fresh thyme
2 dried shiitake mushroom caps
1 bay leaf
½ cup dry marsala
2 cups chicken stock
Pecorino cheese, for serving.
Instructions
Active Time: 45 minutes
Full Time: 3 hours
Place your flours on a clean surface and form a well.
Place your egg yolks and eggs into the well. Carefully whisk eggs and incorporate flour into the egg while keeping the flour wall intact.
Once egg/flour mixture is thick, incorporate all flour with eggs and knead into a dough.
Keep kneading until the dough is cohesive. It will feel dry at first but keep going. If it's still dry after about 5 mins of kneading. Add a splash of water.
Cover with plastic wrap and let dough rest at room temperature for at least 1 hour.
Cut dough in half. With a rolling pin, roll dough thin enough to fit the pasta machine. Working your way down from the largest setting. Roll to level 4 and fold in thirds. Roll thin enough to fit the pasta roller's largest setting. Put it through the pasta machine until desired thickness (I went to level 6). Repeat with the other half of the dough.
Cut pasta sheets into about 12-inch pieces. Roll into logs and slice about 1 inch pieces. Sprinkle flour to avoid sticking and repeat with the rest of the dough. To cook pasta, in a pot of boiling salted water. Cook pasta for about 3 minutes until al dente.
In a small bowl, combine parsley, anchovies, fresno chile, garlic, capers, lemon juice, zest, and Drizzle. Season with salt and pepper.
Preheat oven to 325F.
Season pork cheeks with salt, fennel seed, and black pepper.
In an oven safe pot, coat the pan with Sizzle.
Sear pork cheeks fat side down until golden brown. About 5 minutes. Flip and sear the other side until golden brown. Another 5 minutes. Remove pork cheeks from pan and set aside.
Add shallots and garlic to pan and sear until browned. About 4 minutes. Add in tomato paste and Calabrian chiles. Cook until tomato paste has darkened and caramelized. About 3 minutes. Stir in thyme, mushroom, and bay leaf.
Carefully add in marsala and chicken stock. Bring to a boil. Add pork cheels back to pot. Cover with lid and place in the oven until fork tender. About 2 hours and 30 minutes.
Remove from the oven. Pick out and discard thyme sprigs and the bay leaf. Remove pork from the pot and chop into bite size pieces. Discard overly fatty pieces.
Reduce liquid by ⅓. Add pork back to liquid.
In another pan, add a couple ladles of pork ragu (You'll have ragu leftover). Add in cooked pasta and grated pecorino cheese. Add splashes of pasta water as needed. Top pasta with ragu and top with salsa verde.