Pork Ragu

This slow cooked minced Pork Ragu packs a punch with flavour and it’s just yummy. I’ve always made my ragu with beef & pork mince but as I didn’t have any beef mince this little winner was made instead. To be honest cooking a pork Ragu isn’t unheard off, the Italians have done it many times before me, but I love experimenting so I used what I had in the fridge, added in my seasoning and a fair amount of red wine and let it simmer for 40 minutes, then let my slow cooker do the rest before serving up for dinner.

You can make this on a tight budget. Although I’ve used lean pork mince which cost £3 in Tesco, you can buy pork mince with a little more fat for £2.20 instead. Most of the ingredients I had were in my cupboard or in the fridge, and it was a great way to use up stuff that needed to be used to create this hearty dish.

The best thing about this recipe is that if you have too much leftover you can freeze it for another day. It’s one of those dishes that would be perfect for those colder evenings when you feel like you need to sit on the sofa all snuggled up with a bowl of hearty food to keep your comfort.

The other bonus is that you don’t have to spend that long preparing and cooking it because your slow cooker will do that job for you.

Preparation: 10 minutes

Ingredients: 

• 500g lean pork mince (any pork mince is fine)
• 2 celery sticks, ends removed and diced
• 1 small white onion, diced
• 1/2 courgette, diced
• 6 smoked rashers of bacon, fat removed and diced
• 200ml chicken stock
• 1 cup red wine (I’ve used Chilean Cabernet Sauvignon which is £4.35 at Tesco)
• Salt & pepper
• 100g tomato purée
• 1 spring onion, diced
• 2 tbsp garlic granules
• 1 tsp dried oregano
• 1 tin chopped tomatoes
• 1 tbsp red pesto
• Oil (rice bran, olive, sunflower or vegetable oil works)

Method:

To a medium sized wok add oil, garlic granules and pork mince, with celery, courgette and spring onion. Fry for a few minutes before adding bacon, onion and oregano. Cook for 10 minutes.

In the meantime boil the kettle, add 1 chicken stock cube to a measuring cup and add boiling hot water to the 200ml mark and stir. Add tomato paste and red wine to the stock, stir and add to the meaty mix.

Add chopped tomatoes and red pesto with a little seasoning and let simmer for 30 minutes on a low heat before transferring over to the slow cooker for it to do its magic on a low heat.

Serve with garlic toasts and spaghetti or pappardelle with Parmesan.

Delish!