Three Meats Braised in Tomatoes with Rigatoni

Name: Three Meats Braised in Tomatoes with Rigatoni
Yield: makes meat to serve 6 to 8 and enough sauce for 2 pounds pasta
Ingredients: 1/2 cup extra-virgin olive oil, plus more for finishing; 6 plump garlic cloves, peeled and sliced; 2 large onions, chopped (about 3 cups); 1 sprig fresh rosemary; 1 bay leaf, preferably fresh; 3 1/2 teaspoons kosher salt; 2-pound chunk boneless pork butt; 1 1/2-pound veal shoulder chop; 1/2 teaspoon peperoncino flakes, or to taste; 1 cup red wine; 10 cups (three 28-ounce cans) Italian plum tomatoes, preferably San Marzano, crushed by hand; 1 pound sweet Italian sausages (without fennel seeds); 2 pounds rigatoni (or just 1 pound; see headnote); 1 cup freshly grated pecorino (or half pecorino and half Grana Padano or Parmigiano-Reggiano, for a milder flavor), plus more for passing; A heavy saucepan, such as an enameled cast-iron French oven, 8-quart capacity, with a cover; a large pasta-cooking pot; a heavy-bottomed skillet or sauté pan, 12-inch diameter or larger

December 9, 2011

This is one of those bountiful braises that you make when you want to delight a big table of family or friends, offering them an assortment of tender meats and pasta dressed with the braising sauce. Like other slowly cooked braises, this gives you two courses from one saucepan. Serve pasta dressed with the meaty-tasting tomato sauce as a first course—there’s enough to dress 2 pounds of rigatoni. And then serve the pork, veal, and sausage as a second course. Of course, you don’t have to serve it all for the same meal. Use half the sauce to dress a pound of pasta, freeze the rest, and you have a future meal all ready to go. And after serving the ragù, take any leftover bits and pieces of meat, shred and chop them up, clean the meat from the veal-chop bone, and blend all of it in with any leftover sauce. I bet you’ll have enough sauce with meaty morsels for a lasagna or other baked pasta—yet another meal from that one big braising pan.

Recipe notes

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