After having the fantastic pappardelle at Crooklyn Improv, I found myself craving the broad ribbons of home made pasta. As I was contemplating the merits of different sauces that I could pair with my pappardelle, I came across We Are Never Full's luscious Sausage Ragu. It had to be a sign.
While many in the US associate ragù with a brand of jarred pasta sauce, it actually refers to a whole class of meat-based sauces in Italian cuisine. The word itself is a loan word from the French ragoût which is a stew or sauce served with noodles. I happened to have about 5 pounds of pork cheek meat sitting in the freezer, and because of its high fat and connective tissue content, it's perfect for a sauce like this.
For those not familiar, pork cheek is literally the cheek meat of the pig, and is the same cut used to make Guanciale. There isn't a ton of meat on each cheek, but the meat that is there is incredibly flavorful and has a fantastic marbling of fat that keeps it moist and makes it fall apart when cooked low and slow.
It also happens to be a very cheap cut, coming in at $4.99 a pound at an upscale Manhattan butcher, which means you can almost certainly find it for less at your local butcher. Because it's a rather unusual cut, you probably won't find it at the meat counter of a grocery store, but this is totally worth a trip to the butcher. If you're not of the pork persuasion, this recipe would also work well with other types of meat, like lamb or beef, but be sure you get a cut of meat with a lot of fat and connective tissue. If you do use other types of meat, try using other spices. Mint works great with lamb, and for beef, I tend to like more subtle spices like basil or sage. I also have a recipe for Beef Cheek Confit that's worth checking out if you're adventurous.
The best part about the recipe is that it's simple and low maintenance. Just brown the meat and soffrito to create a flavorful fond on the pan, toss in all the other ingredients, then let it cook over low heat for a few hours. When you come back you'll be greeted by a thick reduced sauce and glistening collagen laden meat that falls apart when prodded with a fork.
The aroma is quite intoxicating, and whether it's served over al dente pappardelle or with a crusty slice of toasted bread, you'll be richly awarded for such a meager amount of work. The left over sauce freezes well and it also makes great open faced sandwiches. If you're craving a quick pasta fix, this sauce would pair fantastically with my Hungarian Nokedli, which come together in the time it takes to boil a pot of water.
As for the pasta, it's so simple that I've stopped buying dried pasta. For two people, just mix 1 cup of flour (all purpose or semolina), and 1 large egg together until combined then add a small amount of warm water at a time until the dough just comes together. Then you can take your aggressions out on the dough, kneading and abusing it until it's very elastic. Think of it like making play-doh... better yet, get your kids to do the kneading so you can do something else.
Once the kneading is done, just cover with plastic and allow it to rest for an hour before you roll it out thin and slice it into broad noodles.
📖 Recipe
Units
Ingredients
- 2 pounds pork cheeks
- 1 medium onion chopped
- 1 rib celery chopped
- ½ cup white wine (such as Grenache blanc)
- 3 cloves garlic minced
- 1 cup whole stewed tomatoes chopped
- 5 sprigs fresh thyme
- ½ teaspoon marjoram
- 1 bay leaf
- 1 shiitake mushroom powder
Instructions
- Trim any excess fat off the pork, but don't trim it all off. Generously salt and pepper both sides. Heat a small dutch oven until hot. Add the pork, fat side down and fry undisturbed until browned. Flip, then brown the other side. You may have to do this in 2 batches. The brown fond on the bottom of the pan is where the sauce gets most of its flavour so make sure you build up a nice thick layer without burning it.
- Turn down the heat and transfer the pork to a plate and add the onions, celery and garlic to the pan. Use the vegetables to scrape the brown fond off the bottom of the pan and fry until soft and fragrant. Deglaze the pan with the wine turning up the heat and boiling until the mixture is a thick consistency. This incorporates all that good flavour into the sauce while reducing the amount of liquid so your sauce doesn't end up watery.
- Add the tomatoes, thyme, marjoram and bay leaf stirring to combine. Use a microplane or other zester to grate 1 tablespoon of dried shiitake mushroom into the ragxf9. Return the pork with the collected juices back into the pot. Submerge the meat in the sauce, turn the heat down to low and partially cover with a lid. Simmer for 2-3 hours or until the meat comes apart easily with a fork.
- Skim off any excess fat with a spoon then remove the pork from the sauce and roughly chop or pull apart the meat then return it to the sauce. If you are serving it with pasta, put the cooked pasta in a bowl with some sauce and toss to combine along with some minced parsley for color. Serve topped with a little extra sauce and some freshly grated Parmigiano-Reggiano.
Marc Matsumoto says
Hi Becka, I'm glad to hear you've been enjoying it!
Becka Sipes says
Hey, I just wanted to thank you for the amazing recipe. We've done it many times and it has always come out perfectly. We also use the pasta recipe practically on a weekly basis. Terrific. Your recipe makes us look like rockstars when we entertain!
Laura says
i see, thanks for replying so promptly!
Marc Matsumoto says
Veal tends to be a lot leaner, so braising them might end up making them dry and stringy. That said, I've never used veal cheeks specifically so I'm not sure.
Laura says
hi marc, can I do this with veal cheeks? cheers
Marc Matsumoto says
Thanks for the heads up, I had my suspicions they were different. In this case, I'm pretty sure this was jowel meat. I asked for cheek at an upscale Italian butcher in NYC and they gave me a frozen bag of really fatty meat labelled "jowel". When I defrosted it there were no big pieces, just a mess of fat and bits of meat. The pork cheeks I usually get at the Japanese butcher are bigger and have more uniform marbling (https://cdn.norecipes.com/wp-content/blogs.dir/1/files/2009/10/chashu-toroniku-1.jpg).
WholeBeastButcher says
Pork jowls and cheeks are not the same thing. You could not do this recipe with jowl's. They are to fatty. More so then belly or shoulder.
WholeBeastButcher says
Pork jowls and cheeks are not the same thing. You could not do this recipe with jowl's. They are to fatty. More so then belly or shoulder.
Anonymous says
I made this last week and it was DELICIOUS! My butcher sells pork cheeks and pork jowls as two different things. So the jowl is almost all fat and skin, but the cheek is very lean. I asked for the jowl but when he showed it to me I knew it wasn't right, so I showed him your recipe and he said, "Oh, cheeks!" They had them frozen only, so he sliced me off to big steak-like pieces. When it thawed each slice was made up of lots of smaller pieces of cheek. The flavour was incredible, very rich, so I'm considering other things I might do with this cut of meat in the future. We had about one and a half cups left over, which I wasn't quite sure what to do with, but since I recently learned to make corn tortillas, I thought I might tun the leftover ragu into good pork taco meat by adding some chipotle peppers in adobo sauce. They were good, but I I think the flavour of the ragu is too strong to and too distinctive to switch gears to that degree. I do think that pork cheek tacos would be AH-MAZING seasoned with that goal in mind.
Thanks so much for this wonderful recipe!
Anonymous says
I made this last week and it was DELICIOUS! My butcher sells pork cheeks and pork jowls as two different things. So the jowl is almost all fat and skin, but the cheek is very lean. I asked for the jowl but when he showed it to me I knew it wasn't right, so I showed him your recipe and he said, "Oh, cheeks!" They had them frozen only, so he sliced me off to big steak-like pieces. When it thawed each slice was made up of lots of smaller pieces of cheek. The flavour was incredible, very rich, so I'm considering other things I might do with this cut of meat in the future. We had about one and a half cups left over, which I wasn't quite sure what to do with, but since I recently learned to make corn tortillas, I thought I might tun the leftover ragu into good pork taco meat by adding some chipotle peppers in adobo sauce. They were good, but I I think the flavour of the ragu is too strong to and too distinctive to switch gears to that degree. I do think that pork cheek tacos would be AH-MAZING seasoned with that goal in mind.
Thanks so much for this wonderful recipe!
Kate says
Like your pics!
Queen of Quirky says
Thanks for this - I recently had a similar dish at a restaurant and wrote about it on my blog. A reader wanted to know more about pork cheek so I found this post and referred her. This sounds like a dead-on version for what the restaurant served and it was very tasty. You may inspire me to make my own pappardelle...
Queen of Quirky says
Thanks for this - I recently had a similar dish at a restaurant and wrote about it on my blog. A reader wanted to know more about pork cheek so I found this post and referred her. This sounds like a dead-on version for what the restaurant served and it was very tasty. You may inspire me to make my own pappardelle...
Erica says
food looks great!!
MUST TRY PIG CHEEK
Erica says
food looks great!!
MUST TRY PIG CHEEK
Kevin (Closet Cooking) says
I don't think that I have ever had pork cheek before. That ragu crostini looks good!
Stacey Snacks says
That recipe is on my list for Sunday cooking.
But with peas, please!
Missed you last night.
Kevin (Closet Cooking) says
I don't think that I have ever had pork cheek before. That ragu crostini looks good!
Stacey Snacks says
That recipe is on my list for Sunday cooking.
But with peas, please!
Missed you last night.
Jenni Field says
Oh, I do love face--beef, veal, grouper even (even though I'm not a fish person). Now, I must eat some pig face at my earliest convenience. Gorgeous ragu--braising is my favorite!
Patrick says
sounds awesome. Im almost certain the cheek muscles you used are not what you use for guanciale. the jowl, right next to the cheek is what you use. but hell, it would be one amazing ragu!
Jenni Field says
Oh, I do love face--beef, veal, grouper even (even though I'm not a fish person). Now, I must eat some pig face at my earliest convenience. Gorgeous ragu--braising is my favorite!
Patrick says
sounds awesome. Im almost certain the cheek muscles you used are not what you use for guanciale. the jowl, right next to the cheek is what you use. but hell, it would be one amazing ragu!
jswching says
Your ragu is making me hungry!
jswching says
Your ragu is making me hungry!
The Duo Dishes says
We've had cheek on pizza. That was great. Something tells us that this is better. More meat, served over pasta, rich sauce. Much better.
Marysol says
I'm with you in regards to homemade pasta. There's nothing easier. Unfortunately, finding pork cheek around here is going to be quite a challenge. But man, does that look good!
Elra says
Gosh, I am so out of the league here... never seen how cheek thingy look like. I know I can eat this, maybe not cooking them at home... if you know what I mean.
Cheers,
elra
Just Cook It says
Looks so tasty. And I can testify as to the excellence of pork cheek:
https://justcookit.blogspot.com/2009/03/nose-to-tail-tuesday-pork-cheeks.html
Marc Matsumoto says
Just so you all don't think I have a huge Sub Zero fridge, I have a Manhattan sized drawer freezer (half the size of a normal one) that holds about as much as a medium sized ice chest.
Marc Matsumoto says
Actually I found a red onion lurking in the bottom drawer of my fridge, so I used that:-)
Giff says
sounds and looks great. I see you braved the snow for an onion after all! Way to sacrifice for the cause!
Peter says
Ummm, rendered pork goodness...nice & flaky...good for smearing on the crostinis.
The Duo Dishes says
We've had cheek on pizza. That was great. Something tells us that this is better. More meat, served over pasta, rich sauce. Much better.
Marysol says
I'm with you in regards to homemade pasta. There's nothing easier. Unfortunately, finding pork cheek around here is going to be quite a challenge. But man, does that look good!
Elra says
Gosh, I am so out of the league here... never seen how cheek thingy look like. I know I can eat this, maybe not cooking them at home... if you know what I mean.
Cheers,
elra
Just Cook It says
Looks so tasty. And I can testify as to the excellence of pork cheek:
https://justcookit.blogspot.com/2009/03/nose-to-tail-tuesday-pork-cheeks.html
Giff says
sounds and looks great. I see you braved the snow for an onion after all! Way to sacrifice for the cause!
pigpigscorner says
I only have junk in my freezer! Maybe I should stock up some real food in my freezer. Looks really delicious!
Peter says
Ummm, rendered pork goodness...nice & flaky...good for smearing on the crostinis.
pigpigscorner says
I only have junk in my freezer! Maybe I should stock up some real food in my freezer. Looks really delicious!
Lulu Barbarian says
"I happened to have about 5 lbs of pork cheek meat sitting in the freezer"
How the hell does THAT happen? Okay, I read what you said about going to a butcher instead of the supermarket. I'll give it a try and report back. 🙂 Yummy!
Holly says
I agree you always have the most interesting ingredients in your freezer. It look great. I picked up some Yuzu Kosho, really interesting I can't wait to try it.
We Are Never Full says
mmmm. thanks for the shout!
but, my favorite line from this post is: I happened to have about 5 lbs of pork cheek meat sitting in the freezer...
only you (and maybe about 4 other food bloggers i love) would be able to say that. you rock!
Lulu Barbarian says
"I happened to have about 5 lbs of pork cheek meat sitting in the freezer"
How the hell does THAT happen? Okay, I read what you said about going to a butcher instead of the supermarket. I'll give it a try and report back. 🙂 Yummy!
Holly says
I agree you always have the most interesting ingredients in your freezer. It look great. I picked up some Yuzu Kosho, really interesting I can't wait to try it.
We Are Never Full says
mmmm. thanks for the shout!
but, my favorite line from this post is: I happened to have about 5 lbs of pork cheek meat sitting in the freezer...
only you (and maybe about 4 other food bloggers i love) would be able to say that. you rock!