Recipe Notes: Pork, Fennel, and Lemon Ragu with Pappardelle

1 May 2019

Recipe from Cook's Illustrated, January 2019

To me, Ragú was always just the brand name for a canned pasta sauce. Only later in life did I learn that it has a more generic meaning as a meat sauce for pasta from northern Italy, spelled with or without an accent on the u (ragù or ragu). It's most common form is ragu rosso, a tomato-based sauce. This recipe is for a ragu bianco which has no tomatoes, trading these for lemon and cream. According to the article in Cook's Illustrated, this version of the sauce predates the more common tomato-based meat sauce. 

A flavorful liquid was made to braise a pork shoulder (Boston butt) roast. Pancetta and water were  cooked in a Dutch oven until the water evaporated, forming a dark brown fond in the pan. Finely chopped onion and fennel bulb were added and cooked until softened. Minced garlic, fresh thyme, salt, and pepper were added and cooked until fragrant. Cream and water were stirred into the mixture then the pork was added. The covered Dutch oven was cooked in a 350° oven until the pork was tender. The pork was removed from the pot and allowed to cool. Meanwhile, the juice and zest from two lemons were added to the braising liquid. The cooled pork was shredded with two forks, added to the Dutch oven, and covered. Pappardelle (a wide, thin pasta) was cooked to al dente in salted water, drained, then added to the pork mixture. Grated pecorino Romano cheese was stirred into the mixture with some of the pasta cooking water. Finally, the ragu was finished with some finely chopped fennel fronds. Total time to prepare this dish was 2 hours 45 minutes, more than half of which was hands off. Cook's Illustrated has started to include time estimates with their recipes and in this case my time matched theirs.

We both enjoyed this dish, garnished with some grated pecorino Romano. We thought there was too much lemon, so much so that the lemon flavor overpowered some of the other flavors in the ragu. The combination of fennel, lemon, and tender pork is great and the cream sauce a nice compliment. We found that it keeps well and is good when reheated; like many dishes the flavors are better blended after some time and the lemon is a tad less dominate. This is a dish to make again, but with less lemon.