Rustic Slow-Simmered Tomato Sauce with Meat

Ingredients

1 tablespoon Extra Virgin Olive Oil

1.5 pounds Rib

trimmed and cut into 1½-inch pieces

0.75 teaspoon Table Salt

divided, plus salt for cooking pasta

0.5 teaspoon Pepper

1 Onion

chopped fine

0.5 cup Red Wine

1 can 28 ounce Whole Tomatoes

drained with juice reserved, chopped fine

1 pound Ziti, Rigatoni, Penne, Or Other Short, Tubular Pasta

Rustic Slow-Simmered Tomato Sauce with Meat

Jack Bishop (Jack Bishop)

Serves	Total	Shares
0	180 min	2

How do you get robust meaty flavor and thick, rich texture into a basic tomato sauce? We tested eight cuts of meat and found that ribs make the most flavorful sauce. Slow-simmered Italian meat sauce—the kind without meatballs—relies on pork for rich flavor. But the pork found in supermarkets is so lean, we needed an option that could provide enough fat and flavor to create a flavorful meat sauce with fall-off-the-bone-tender meat. We used readily available fattier boneless pork butt roast, which turned meltingly tender when cooked for a long time and added meaty flavor. Boneless beef short ribs can also be used, but they need to cook a little longer. Red wine accentuated the meatiness of the sauce, which was built on a simple combination of sautéed onion and canned whole tomatoes.

main coursesaucesmake ahead

Save this recipe to your personal collection, manage your grocery lists and access the step-by-step cooking assistant with the TastyBites app.

Instructions

Note: This sauce can be made with either beef or pork. Pork butt roast is often labeled Boston butt in the supermarket. To prevent the sauce from becoming greasy, trim the meat well and drain off most of the fat from the skillet after browning. This thick, rich, robust sauce is best with tubular pasta, such as ziti, rigatoni, penne, or garganelli. (For fresh garganelli, we recommend using our Fresh Pasta Without a Machine recipe.) Pass grated Pecorino Romano (especially nice with pork) or Parmesan cheese at the table.

Heat oil in 12-inch skillet over medium-high heat until shimmering. Sprinkle meat with ½ teaspoon salt and pepper and brown on all sides, turning occasionally with tongs, 5 to 7 minutes. Transfer meat to large plate; pour off all but 1 teaspoon fat from skillet. Add onion and remaining ¼ teaspoon salt and cook until softened, 2 to 3 minutes. Add wine and simmer briskly, scraping up any browned bits, until wine reduces by half, about 2 minutes.

Return meat and any accumulated juices to skillet; add tomatoes and reserved juice. Bring to boil, then reduce heat to low; cover; and simmer gently, turning meat several times, until meat is very tender, 1½ to 2 hours for pork and 2 to 2½ hours for beef. (If beef isn’t tender after 2 hours, add ¼ cup water and continue to cook until tender.)

Transfer meat to clean plate. Using 2 forks, shred meat into bite-size pieces, discarding any large pieces of fat or connective tissue. Return meat to skillet. Return sauce to simmer over medium heat and cook, uncovered, until slightly thickened, about 5 minutes. Season with salt and pepper to taste.

Bring 4 quarts water to boil in large pot. Add pasta and 1 tablespoon salt and cook, stirring often, until al dente. Reserve ½ cup cooking water, then drain pasta and return to pot. Add sauce to pasta and toss to combine, adjusting consistency with reserved cooking water as needed. Serve. (Sauce can be refrigerated for up to 4 days or frozen for up to 2 months.)