Pulled Pork Ragu with Polenta

Use up leftovers to make this incredible pulled pork ragu. Serve over pasta or my favorite, creamy polenta and you’ve got an incredible Italian comfort food that will blow you away!

Find leftover pulled pork recipes here.

Let start this off and tell you that this recipe is life changing. I always thought that pulled pork was an American thing. We love it smoked and in sandwiches, slathered in barbecue sauce. Well, my kids aren’t into sauces, so many times I prepare pulled pork without any sauce in it.

Mexicans have their own version of pulled pork, carnitas. And it’s pretty damn delicious, too. But I recently learned that Italians have their own version of pulled pork. A slow roasted pork shoulder in a delicious ragu sauce. And wowza – it’s so good!

Ingredients you need

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• Onions: I use simple brown onions. You can also use white or sweet Vidalia onions.
• Celery: This is used to build the base of the ragu.
• Garlic: As we are building flavors in this ragu, fresh garlic is most definitely preferred to garlic powder.
• Fresh herbs: This recipe uses a combination of fresh sage, thyme, basil and rosemary. I strongly recommend using fresh versus dried herbs. Or if you have most of the herbs in fresh form, you can substitute one of them with dried.
• Dry red wine: I am not a wine drinker or aficionado, but I do like wine in my cooking. It really brings tremendous flavor in the ragu. If you don’t drink alcohol, don’t worry, it gets burned off in the cooking process.
• Cooked pulled pork: It is preferred to use shredded pork that is not drowning in barbecue sauce. I typically use smoked pulled pork (which adds a nice flavor element to the dish). It. is very tasty with my crispy oven pulled pork.
• Pantry staples: Tomato paste, diced tomatoes, extra virgin olive oil, salt and pepper.

Serve with a nice crunchy bread or over wide noodles like pappardelle or egg noodles. My personal favorite is over cheesy polenta, where you will need fine polenta corn meal, water, butter and grated parmesan.

Step-by-step directions

1. Sauté the vegetables. The base of the sauce begins with sautéd onions and celery. Once softened, garlic and herbs are added in. I used what I had in my yard: fresh rosemary, thyme and basil. Be warned: your kitchen will smell divine while I you cook this baby up. 
2. Add tomato paste. Next you stir in tomato paste and you stir it into the aromatic vegetables, lightly browning the tomato paste. Nancy says this caramelizes the sugar in the tomato paste and creates a richer and deeper flavor. It reminded me a lot of how you cook roux for gumbo. The darker the color (without burning it), the deeper the flavor.
3. Add red wine. Once the tomato paste is browned, stir in the red wine. There are some differences in opinion on whether you can use red or white wine (as you are adding pork, a white meat). I chose red wine, as had some merlot on hand and used it in the ragu. Stir in the wine to release any bits on the bottom of the pot and cook until the liquid is reduced by half.
4. Simmer. Stir in the diced tomatoes and then let the sauce simmer for at least an hour.
5. Add pork. Add in the shredded pork and let it cook with the sauce for an additional 20 to 30 minutes. You can serve this over egg noodles or polenta. While the pork simmers in the sauce, prepare the side of your choice.

Expert tips and recipe FAQs

The inspiration of this recipe comes from this traditional pork ragu recipe thatmy friend Nancy/A Communal Table created where a pork shoulder is roasted slowly and braised in a chunky tomato sauce.

Polenta. Having had bland polenta before, I was never a huge fan of the stuff. It tasted rubbery and blah. Then one night I went to an Italian restaurant and enjoyed the creamiest, most heavenly polenta.

Polenta is an Italian dish made with stone ground corn. Stone ground corn meal is more coarse than fine stuff you find at the grocery store. You want to look for corn meal that is labeled for polenta.

Fine corn meal will cook faster than stone ground and the final texture will be much smoother. So if you use regular corn meal, cut the cooking time in half.

If you are looking for more comfort food with a twist, try my Braised Chuck Roast with Herb Dumplings and Saffron Chicken. So delish!

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Pulled Pork Ragu with Polenta

Laura Bashar | Family Spice

Use up leftovers to make this incredible pulled pork ragu. Serve over pasta or my favorite, creamy polenta and you've got an incredible Italian comfort food that will blow you away!

4.88 from 8 votes

Print Recipe Pin Recipe

Prep Time 10 minutes mins

Cook Time 1 hour hr 30 minutes mins

Total Time 1 hour hr 40 minutes mins

Course Main Course

Cuisine Italian

Servings 4

Calories 497 kcal

Ingredients

  

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Ragu Ingredients

• 1 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil
• ½ cup chopped onions
• ¼ cup chopped celery
• 3 garlic cloves
• 1 tablespoon chopped fresh sage
• 1 teaspoon fresh thyme
• 1 teaspoon chopped fresh basil
• ½ teaspoon chopped fresh rosemary
• 1 ½ teaspoon salt divided
• ¼ teaspoon ground black pepper
• 2 tablespoon tomato paste
• ⅓ cup dry red wine
• 15 oz canned diced tomatoes
• 8 oz cooked pulled pork

Polenta Ingredients

• 1 cup polenta corn meal
• 4 cups water
• 4 tablespoon butter
• ½ cup grated parmesan

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Instructions

 

Ragu Directions

• In a medium pot over medium-high heat add olive oil.
• When oil is hot, add onions and celery and sauté until softened, about 5 minutes.
• Stir in herbs, garlic, ½ teaspoon salt and ¼ teaspoon pepper until combined.
• Reduce heat to medium and stir in tomato paste. Work it into the vegetables and herbs and cook until color begins to darken.
• Stir in wine and continue stirring and cooking for 2-3 minutes.
• Mix in diced tomatoes, then reduce heat to low and simmer ragu for at least one hour.
• Stir in pulled pork and let sauce simmer for 20 minutes.
• If sauce gets too thick, add a little water to thin out.

Polenta Directions

• In the meantime, make the polenta. If you are serving over pasta, prepare the pasta.
• Add 2 cups of water into a small pot, add 1 teaspoon salt and bring to boil.
• When water is boiling, slowly pour in corn meal, whisking it into the water the whole time.
• Reduce heat to medium-high and continue whisking until mixture is smooth and begins to thicken.
• Reduce heat to medium-low and cook until corn meal is tender and polenta is thick by creamy, stirring often, about 20 minutes.
• Stir in butter and parmesan cheese.
• To serve, spread cornmeal over a shallow bowl or pasta dish and top with pork ragu.
• Garnish fresh parsley and more grated parmesan, if desired.

Notes

Cornmeal cooks faster than polenta, so if replacing the polenta with cornmeal, cook it about half as long.

TO STORE: Store any leftover pork ragu in an airtight container and refrigerate for up to 4 days.

TO FREEZE: You can also freeze leftovers. Transfer to a resealable bag or freezer safe container and freeze for up to 4 months.

Nutrition

Serving: 1gCalories: 497kcalCarbohydrates: 51gProtein: 17gFat: 25gSaturated Fat: 12gPolyunsaturated Fat: 11gTrans Fat: 1gCholesterol: 68mgSodium: 1909mgFiber: 6gSugar: 14g

Keyword leftover pulled pork, pork ragu, pulled pork ragu

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Nutritional information is an estimate provided to you as a courtesy. You should calculate the actual nutritional information with the products and brands you are using with your preferred nutritional calculator.

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