After giving our kitchens and stomachs a workout for Thanksgiving, it might be time to return to simple peasant fare.
I found one such dish in Girl in the Kitchen (Chronicle Books) by Stephanie Izard.
Stephanie has won rave reviews with her restaurant Girl and the Goat in Chicago.
With Girl in the Kitchen she has the home cook in mind.
Throughout the book, 'Ingredient Spotlight' enlightens us on various picks from Coconut Milk to Aji Amarillo and Kumquats.
A number of recipes are accompanied with a 'drink tip'. Stephanie seems partial to micro brews.
Here's a turkey free recipe.
Apple-Pork Ragu with Papardelle
Serves 4 as an entrée, 8 as an appetizer
This is an extremely simple recipe, but the number of flavors involved make it a lot more fun and unique than your average pasta with meat sauce. I really like to make this in early fall when apples are at their prime and I specifically like to use the Honeycrisp variety. Their perfect sweetto-tart ratio marries well with tomatoes, and the overall sweetness is offset by salty capers. This sauce is awesome with homemade papardelle, but it would be great with any dried pastas as well.
If you go that route, a small shell-shaped pasta like orechiette would be ideal, capturing a few bits of pork in each bite. And if you’re a cheese freak like me, top the whole thing off with a bit of freshly grated Parmesan.
1 teaspoon olive oil
12 ounces ground pork
2 slices thick-cut bacon, cut into 1/2-inch pieces
1/2 cup diced onion
3 garlic cloves, minced
2 Honeycrisp apples, peeled and cut into 1/4-inch slices
1/2 cup dry white wine
One 15-ounce can whole peeled tomatoes, smashed by hand or chopped
1 cup chicken broth
1 batch Basic Pasta Dough (about 1 lb), cut into papardelle, or 1 pound dried papardelle
2 tablespoons brined capers
2 tablespoons thinly sliced fresh basil
Coarse salt
Freshly ground black pepper
1. Heat the oil in a large sauté pan over medium-high heat. Add the pork and cook it until it browns, 5 to 7 minutes, breaking it into smaller pieces with a spoon. Set aside.
2. In a large saucepot or Dutch oven, lightly brown the bacon pieces over medium heat. Add the onions and garlic and sweat them by cooking until the onions are translucent, about 2 minutes. Add the apples and wine and simmer until the wine is reduced by three quarters.
3. Add the tomatoes, broth, and browned pork and bring to a boil. Reduce the heat and simmer, partially covered, until the sauce has thickened somewhat, about 15 minutes.
4. Meanwhile, bring a large pot of water to a boil. Drop the papardelle in the boiling water and cook until al dente, about 3 minutes, or according to the package directions. Drain and rinse.
5. Add the capers and basil to the sauce just before serving. Season the ragù with salt and pepper.
Serve over the pasta.
Drink Tip: Apples work well in oatmeal, and likewise, this appley, pork-packed ragù goes hand-in-hand with oatmeal stouts. These yummy beers have enough body and plenty of creaminess to stand up to this rich dish, but being a stout, the slightly bitter malts will keep the pairing from being cloying.
(* Recipe from Girl in the Kitchen: How a Top Chef Cooks, Thinks, Shops, Eats and Drinks by Stephanie Izard with Heather Shouse-Chronicle Books, November 2011-Photographs by Dan Goldberg, all rights reserved)