Rustic Pork Ragu-a Fabulous & Inexpensive Meal

I have declared a moratorium on frozen food shopping until further notice.

My freezer is incredibly JAMMED with food. Ok....make that TWO freezers full-the little freezer above the fridge AND my big old freestanding upright Freezer in the garage.

Seriously.
Full.
Like not 1 square inch of space left in either.

I blame 50 blocks of cheese from an incredible deal a few weeks ago.
And then there was a sale on the little boxed packages of Green Giant Vegetables that retail for $1.79. The store in my teeny tiny town had them marked $1 on sale. I forgot I had coupons for 50 cents off on GG veggies, that my store doubles to $1. Using the coupons made them 50 cents a box, so I had to go stock up last night before the sale ended. Hey, I only bought 20 boxes.....don't look at me like that!

So I actually had to rearrange and evict a package of meat(a pork roast) from the freezer to make all the boxed veggies fit. You can see about 1/3 of the cheese blocks here in the door. The rest are with the boxed veggies and their friends, the bacon, the local corn-on-the-cob & the salmon filets in the upright freezer.



A Seriously full freezer section.
So dinner tonight is NOT the Boston Baked Beans, Sweet Potato Biscuits and Smithfield Ham slices as planned.

Tonight is the Rustic Pork Ragu over Orrichiette Pasta.
It's basically pasta & spaghetti sauce with bits of pork. Orrichiette is Italian for little ears. My family likes this shape of pasta. It's a little bowl shape with ridges, so you get 2, count 'em 2, methods to hold the sauce.

This PORK RAGU recipe is a family favorite. My daughter is attending a friend's sweet 16th surprise party tonight. When she found out I was having to make this dinner tonight, she complained about having to eat Pizza instead at the party.
I found the thought of a teenager disappointed in having to eat pizza slightly amusing. ;-)

And because of my good grocery store deals lately this meal will cost me very little.




The basic recipe is this...

Ingredients

2 tablespoons olive oil
1 pork roast or loin or shoulder(boneless or bone-in) approx. 2-3lbs
1 large onion
4 cloves of garlic
2-4 cans of tomatoes(28 oz. size)
2 sprigs of rosemary(or try basil for a different flavor)
kosher salt
black pepper
1-2 lbs. of pasta(orrichiette or whatever non-long spaghetti type shape you like)
parmesan cheese(optional)
tomato paste(optional)

*Chop up a large onion.
*Mince 4 cloves of garlic(fresh is better, but you can use already prepared from a jar or garlic powder as a last resort).
*Pour 2 Tablespoons of Olive Oil in a Dutch Oven or Large Cooking Pot & heat on medium/high heat.
*Salt and Pepper the Pork Roast & place in the hot oil.
*Sear on each side 3-4 minutes.
*Remove Roast from Pot.
*Add Onion, Garlic & Rosemary(1 teaspoon or 2 sprigs fresh, chopped) to oil & cook a few minutes, stirring.
*Add 2-4 large cans of crushed, whole or puree tomatoes. I use the 28 ounce cans. If you want more sauce, use more cans, less sauce-less cans. If you like a chunky sauce, use whole or crushed;if you like a smooth sauce, use the puree.
*Scrape off the bits of pork that stuck to the bottom of the pot during the searing.
*Return the pork to the pot with the tomatoes and bring to a boil.
*Once boiling, lower the temp. to simmer and cover with a lid.
*Simmer until the pork is fork tender & falling apart-about 3 hours.
*Once done, remove the pork to cool. After cooling, pull the meat apart into bite sized chunks and discard the bones (if you used a bone-in roast).
*Put the pork pieces back into the sauce.(If you like a thicker sauce, add 1 can of tomato paste at this point.)
*Cook your pasta according to the directions on the box/bag.
*Serve Ragu over pasta, sprinking Parmesan or Romano Cheese on top.

My cost break down...
I used a bone-in Pork Roast that was a Manager's Special at .99 a lb. It was just over 3lbs.=$3.15
I used the 4 cans of crushed tomatoes from the markdown table, I bought during my Price Chopper Saga post last week. 4 x .50=$2.00
1 Onion=$.25
4 Garlic cloves=$.10
Olive Oil=$.30
Salt,Pepper=$.05
Rosemary=$.15
Orrichiette Pasta(2 boxes)=$3.00 (You can use less expensive pasta, orrichiette is NOT widely available and runs more than most boxed pastas in this part of the country.)
Parmesan=$1.00

Total=$10.00

(I didn't use tomato paste this batch, but that would have added about .65 cents to the total.)
This much sauce & 2lb. this shape pasta give you 12 generous servings.

That makes this dinner $.84 a serving! Add a salad or some sauteed chard or escarole and you have a yummy, healthy, well-balanced meal.

This dish is Crockpot Friendly as well. After searing your pork and sweating your onions & garlic, you can transfer this to a crockpot to cook with your tomatoes. As long as you have time in the morning to do the chopping & searing, you can cook it off while you are at work or running errands or kids around to activities.

Crockpots are great for letting you have a Slow Cooked meal without having to be home to stand watch over the process.

So what did you make for dinner tonight?

Sluggy