Rigatoni with spicy pork & tomato ragu and stracciatella

"This is so tasty I don’t really know what to say apart from give it a go and see for yourself!" says Tim Siadatan. "Stracciatella is the gooey bit inside burrata and it takes this full-of-flavour pasta dish to a devilish height, but it’s also delicious without it, finishing with grated Parmesan instead."

Rigatoni with spicy pork & tomato ragu and stracciatella. Credit: Bloomsbury Publishing / Sam A Harris

• serves

  4

• prep

  10 minutes

• cook

  2 hours

• difficulty

  Easy

Ingredients

• About 30 ml extra virgin olive oil
• 500 g pork shoulder mince
• 1–2 baby back pork ribs (with meat on)
• 100 g slice of unsmoked pancetta
• ½ nutmeg, finely grated
• 1 large onion
• 1 large carrot
• 2 celery sticks
• 4 medium garlic cloves
• 1–2 large red chillies, deseeded and finely chopped, or ½–1 tsp crushed dried chilli
• 2 tbsp chopped oregano
• 2 tbsp chopped rosemary
• 2 bay leaves
• 2 tbsp tomato purée
• 250 ml red wine
• 2 x 400g tins peeled plum tomatoes, drained of half their juice
• 400 g dried rigatoni, penne, spaghetti or linguine
• 200 g stracciatella or 2 burrata balls
• Sea salt and freshly ground black pepper

Instructions

1. For the ragu, heat a thin layer of extra virgin olive oil (about 30 ml) in a large heavy-based pan and add the pork mince, pork rib(s) and pancetta. Season with the nutmeg and a pinch each of salt and pepper. Fry over a medium heat, breaking up any large clusters of mince with a wooden spoon, until the mince is turning golden brown and crispy. Using a slotted spoon, transfer the contents of the pan to a large plate, keeping all the fat in the pan.
2. Finely chop the onion, carrot, celery and garlic. Place the pan back over a medium-low heat and add the chopped veg and garlic, chilli and herbs, with a pinch of salt. Cook, stirring regularly, for 20–30 minutes until the soffritto is soft and golden brown, adding a little more olive oil if the pan looks dry at any stage. Add the mince, pancetta and pork rib(s) back to the pan, along with the tomato purée, and stir to bring it all together.
3. Add the red wine to the pan to deglaze, stirring and scraping the smudgy bits off the bottom of the pan with a wooden spoon. Simmer until you can no longer smell the booze.
4. Add the tinned tomatoes with half of their juice and 250 ml water. Stir and bring to a simmer, then put the lid on the pan. Simmer over a low heat for about 1–1¼ hours, stirring from time to time, until the sauce is deep red in colour and has a rich porky flavour. If the sauce reduces and becomes jammy during the cooking process, add a splash of water. You want the end product to have the same consistency as bolognaise – a thick sauce, but still wet enough to part easily when you pass a wooden spoon through it.
5. Lift the pork rib(s) and pancetta out of the pan and pull the meat off the rib. Finely chop the pork rib meat and the pancetta and fold both back through the ragu. Taste to check the seasoning and adjust with salt and/or pepper if required.
6. The pork ragu will be delicious eaten immediately but will get better after a day or two in the fridge and can be refrigerated for up to 5 days; it also freezes well.
7. For the pasta, in a large cooking pot, bring 4-5 litres of water to the boil and add a fistful of salt (see Note).
8. Drop the pasta in to the boiling water and follow the packet directions for timing but take 2 minutes off the recommended cooking time (so if the packet says 9 minutes, give it 7 minutes).
9. Transfer about 550 g of ragu to a pan large enough to easily hold the cooked pasta and heat gently until hot.
10. Drain the pasta as soon as it’s ready, keeping two mugs of pasta water.
11. Add the past to the ragu with half a mug (about 120 ml) of pasta water and stir over a medium heat for about 1 minute until the liquid is reduced and the pasta is al dente (firm to bite but easy to chew) and evenly coated with the ragu. If the sauce is too dry, add splashes of the reserved pasta water to loosen as you stir: you don’t want the pasta all clumped up together, you want it to be loose and for the rigatoni to slide freely over each other as you stir. Taste and adjust the seasoning with salt and/or pepper if necessary.
12. Serve on hot plates with a big blog of stracciatella on top of each portion (or tear a big piece of burrata over each). Eat Immediately. For serving, a garlic baguette (from the supermarket) doesn’t go amiss, and a big green, peppery salad on the side will balance the richness of the dish perfectly.

Note

• You need to season the water to resemble mild sea water. It sounds like a lot but correctly seasoned water makes a big difference to the final plate of pasta.
• Extra ragu can be kept in the fridge or frozen.

 

This recipe is an edited extract from Padella by Tim Siadatan (Bloomsbury Publishing, $49.99)

Cook's Notes

Oven temperatures are for conventional; if using fan-forced (convection), reduce the temperature by 20˚C. | We use Australian tablespoons and cups: 1 teaspoon equals 5 ml; 1 tablespoon equals 20 ml; 1 cup equals 250 ml. | All herbs are fresh (unless specified) and cups are lightly packed. | All vegetables are medium size and peeled, unless specified. | All eggs are 55-60 g, unless specified.