Pork Bolognese with Parmesan & Mint
Once you have all your ingredients ready, we can start cooking. One of the most important things here is going to be properly caramelizing your meat; this will bring out a lot of flavor. In a large pan or pot heat up 3 T oil until it almost starts to smoke, add your pork and sear on all sides evenly, this may take a few minutes to achieve a proper sear.
Once complete, take the meat out into a strainer so it can dry, reserve the fat. Repeat this process until all of the meat is seared properly and drained. Add all the fat back into the pan on low heat and add the onions, garlic, celery, leeks, fennel and carrots. Add enough olive oil to just cover, add a large pinch of salt, stir and let cook for 2 hours on low heat, stirring frequently. You can speed up this process and cook the vegetables on medium heat, but by cooking low and slow you are creating a lot more "depth" of flavor that will most certainly be tasted in the long run.
Once the vegetables are done add the chopped tomatoes, turn on medium heat and cook for about 30 minutes, you want the tomatoes to start to stick to the bottom a little bit then you can add the red wine and cook for another 10 minutes. Add your reserved tomato juice and 2-3 cups of beef stock, seared protein, another large pinch of salt, black pepper and let cook for up to 3 hours.
Chefs Junior Borges and The Joule and Josh Sutcliff from Mirador says low and slow for flavor is the way to go. They're competing this weekend with four other chefs at Cochon 555.
Mafaldine Bolognese, Parmesan and Mint
2.5lb medium cubed pork shoulder or butt (sinew removed and fat cleaned to desire)
2.5lb ground beef
2 ea yellow onion quartered
1 ea fennel bulb small dice
1 head garlic sliced thin
1 bulb leek sliced thin
5 stalks celery sliced thin
2 ea medium sized carrot quartered and sliced thin
5 6 oz or 2 cans of pomodoro tomato (drained and chopped finely)
1.5 cup red wine (wine you want to drink)
2 bunch fresh chopped parsley
15 nice leaves of mint rough chopped
1 bunch chives sliced thinly
1 box or beef or chicken stock (vegetable stock also works)
1 cup cooking oil (canola, vegetable, grape seed, peanut, etc.)
1 chunk fiore sardo or Parmesan
salt and black pepper
1-2 bag of Mafaldine noodles (dry from Whole Foods or Central Market, you can use any shaped noodle, just try to find something with ridges to hold the meat sauce)
1 lb butter
5 ea juiced lemons
At the end, you want to add all the fresh herbs, butter, cheese and lemon juice. Season this as it cooks, a little here a little there, and wait until the end to adjust with your final season. Taste, taste, taste!!
Cook your pasta in boiling water, remember it is 4-6 qt of water per lb of dry pasta. Season your water with salt, think a little lighter than the ocean, and stir frequently.
This meat sauce will last up to 7 days and will probably continue to get better day after day, enjoy.