Pork Rib Ragu

This week I made a Pork Ragu. This recipe is a perfect example of one of my favorite cooking styles: Peasant Food! This style of cooking can be found in almost every cuisine and typically uses the cheapest cuts of meats or leftovers and abundant, inexpensive local ingredients. The list includes British Shepards' Pie, Welsh Rarebit, Japanese Ramen Bowls and French Fromage Fort. The Italians have elevated peasant fare to an art-form with slow cooked meat sauces.

I adapted a Martha Stewart Recipe and used all the leftover odds and ends in my freezer. I had a small package of pork spareribs and some neck bones. To make the recipe in the crockpot, I browned the ribs and set them aside. Then I sauteed the vegetables and reduced them with wine and stored the meat and vegetables separately in the fridge over night and put it all together in the crock pot in the morning. I covered the mixture with water, which was probably too much. My sauce was more broth-like than gravy, I would add less water next time.
Skimming fat from the broth.

Meat pulled from the bones, I also rescued the vegetables from the crockpot.

To finish the sauce, I sauteed more onions in butter and added a couple of tablespoons of flour as a thickener and added the broth.

I served the ragu over pasta. It would be good over potatoes, rice or polenta. This recipe would be easily adapted for beef ribs.