This is not a recipe from Venice, but from my cugina Odeta from the Maremma in southern Tuscany. But because it fits so nicely with the autumn weather, I always like to cook it at this time of year: pappardelle with wild boar ragù, pappardelle al ragù di cinghiale. By the way, I always use wild boar, even if it is so sinfully expensive, and never mix it with normal pork. You can taste the difference, believe me!
IngredientsI always make a kilo of ragù right away and put the rest in the fridge. Then I already have something to look forward to and it’s less work that way. For one kilo of ragù I use
- 750g wild boar (cinghiale)
- 2 stalks of celery
- 2 cloves of garlic
- 50ml red wine
- Black pepper to taste
- 75g tomato paste for color
- some sage
- 10g dark chocolate
- 500ml vegetable broth (I usually cook it myself the day before)
- 1 carrot
- 1 white onion
- some rosemary
- Salt of course!
- 1 tablespoon olive oil (extra virgin!)
- Thyme, marjoram and juniper berries
For the marinade of the wild boar I use:
- 1 bottle of red wine (not the cheapest, but it doesn’t have to be expensive either)
- 1 stick of celery
- Black pepper in grains
- 1 carrot
- 1 white onion
- 4 bay leaves
Actually the preparation is very simple: the night before I put the wild boar meat, cut into pieces, in a pot with the chopped vegetables and the red wine and leave it covered with a lid until the next evening. After that I quickly make the vegetable broth. You can buy it ready-made, but, you know…. oh, I don’t want to blaspheme again!
The next day, I take the meat out of the marinade and chop it up some more. The pieces should not have more than one centimeter edge length. I dice the vegetables for the ragù very small and put them together with the juniper berries and the herbs in a pan and roast everything vigorously for 20 minutes. For the herbs I use a tea egg. This is a trick that my mother told me: This way, the flavor of the herbs gets into the food, but you can easily fish them out afterwards and you won’t have weird little knots in your teeth when you eat the ragù.
After the 20 minutes, I add the tomato paste and deglaze the whole thing with the red wine. Once the alcohol has evaporated, add the meat and vegetable stock to the pan and simmer everything on very low for 90 minutes until the stock is reduced and the meat is nice and tender. Add salt, pepper and grate the chocolate over the top and the wild boar ragout is ready!
In the meantime, I made the pappardelle myself with my little pasta machine and cooked al dente. You can get them ready-made in the supermarket, but they taste much better fresh. Bon appetite!
