Not Your Every Day Pasta and Meat Sauce: Pasta with Pork Sugo and Porcini

My husband loves pasta. He loves pasta almost as much as he loves tomatoes. Naturally, (like any good Italian) my husband could eat pasta with a bolognese sauce every day, for the rest of his life, and die one happy man.  So when Pete requested a "pasta dish, with tomato" for dinner the other night, I started looking around for a new take on pasta with meat sauce.  My search ended with Vitaly Paley's recipe for "Pasta alla Chitarra with Pork Sugo and Porcini" a delicious variation of a familiar classic.

Whether you call it sugo, ragu or bolognese, this long-simmering meat sauce is a legendary cornerstone of Italian cooking.  The word "sugo" literally means "juice" in Italian, but is essentially used interchangeably with "ragu" (from the French, "ragout"), which refers to a meat sauce.  Typically, it consists of meat (beef, pancetta, pork, rabbit or veal), onion, vegetables (mostly carrots and celery, sometimes mushrooms), tomato, wine, and milk (if you are from Bologna).  Whatever name you prefer, the very idea of this sauce is enough to conjure images of a long-lost Italian grandmother, chasing you around the kitchen with a long wooded spoon in hand.

Paley's recipe takes the idea of a meat and tomato based sauce and spices it up with a number of warm and exotic spices - like cinnamon, allspice, paprika and fennel.  It is at once familiar and comforting, yet surprising and distinctive.

Also central to the flavors of this sauce are the rich and meaty porcini mushrooms.  Paley's book includes a charming description of mushroom hunting west of Portland, Oregon - with Lars, "The Mushroom Guy" - that makes you want to lace up your hiking boots to go forage in the forest.  Fresh porcini mushrooms, are hard to find, but you can order them frozen online here.  I could not get my hands on any fresh or frozen, so I opted for two packages of dried porcinis, which are easily found at most good grocery stores.   If you use dried mushrooms, you will first have to reconstitute them by soaking them in hot water (just follow the directions on the package).  Make sure to save the soaking liquid - which will turn a dark, rich brown color - because it will be loaded with flavor that you will not want to lose.      

What to drink?  We paired this with a 2008 Aramis Shiraz-Cabernet that perfectly complimented the spice blends in the sauce.  A good pinot noir would also be tasty!

Enjoy!


Pasta with Pork Sugo and Porcini Mushrooms

Adapted from: The Paley's Place Cookbook: Recipes and Stories from the Pacific Northwest.  Ten Speed Press (October 2008).

Ingredients:

1 pound ground pork
1 tsp parika
1 tsp ground fennel seed
1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
1/2 tsp ground ginger
1/2 tsp ground allspice
1/2 tsp red pepper flakes
1 tsp kosher salt
1 tsp freshly ground black pepper
1/4 cup extra-virgin olive oil
2 oz. dried porcini mushrooms, reconstituted in 1 cup of boiling water, liquid reserved
1 onion, diced
6 cloves garlic, minced, plus more for garnish
1 cup red wine
1 (28-ounce) can crushed tomatoes, with the juice
1 cup Chicken Stock
2 tbsp unsalted butter
1 lb Fettucine, or other wide noodle
1/4 cup grated Parmesan cheese, plus more for garnish
1 good handful of fresh parsley

In a large bowl, add the pork, paprika, fennel seed, cinnamon, ginger, allspice, red pepper flakes, salt, and pepper.  Mix until evenly combined and set aside.
  
In a large soup pot or dutch oven, heat the olive oil over medium heat.  Add the mushrooms and cook, stirring, until fragrant.  Add the onion and garlic and cook until soft , about 5 minutes.  Add the pork, and with the back of a wooden spoon, break up the meat into bite-sized pieces.  Saute, stirring occasionally, until the pork browns. 

Add the wine and reduce until in has all been absorbed.  Add in the tomatoes simmer for another couple of minutes, until slightly thickened.  Add the chicken stock and the reserved porcini soaking liquid.  Bring to a simmer, and cook, stirring frequently, for an additional 10 minutes.  Taste and season with salt and pepper if needed.  Reduce heat to low and keep the sauce hot while the pasta cooks.  You can make the sauce one day in advance and store in the refrigerator.

Cook the pasta according to the instructions.  Meanwhile, chop up a handful of parsley and a clove of garlic.  Mix the two and chop until finely diced and well distributed. Add the cooked pasta to the sauce, then the butter and Parmesan.  Toss to coat.  Garnish each serving with additional parmesan and a gentle sprinkle of the parsley/garlic mix.