Wild Boar Pasta Sauce

So 2 Sundays ago hubby and father in law went out hunting. They got a wild boar. Lovely! So after preparing it, hanging it and than dividing it I decided that today I'd make a wild boar sauce for the pasta. And, even if I do say so myself it turned out great!!! Thankfully I made enough for tomorrow too! I served pappardelle pasta, a thick spaghetti which is great for this type of sauce. 


Pappardelle Pasta 

• 600g Tipo ‘00’ flour (plain flour works just as well)
• 6 large eggs

Place the flour on a large wooden board. I got one made for me which is 2metres by 2 metres so I can mix, knead and roll with no problems. Make a well in the centre and crack the eggs into it. Beat the eggs with a fork until smooth. Using the fork take little of the flour at a time from the sides, incorporating a little at a time, until everything is combined. Knead well.
At this point I usually put it in a bowl, cover it, and let it rest in the fridge for half an hour.
There are two ways to roll your dough. With a pasta machine, which I refuse to have in the house, or with your rolling pin, a tried and trusted method. Dust your board, or surface with a little flour, cut a quarter of the dough and start to roll. Roll until it is ribbon thin then Dust with flour and loosely roll it into a cylinder. Using a sharp knife, cut into 3/4-inch-wide slices.You can do this with more sheets of dough at a time if you wish. Then gently toss to seperate.

At this point some people hang it to dry it but I just lightly dust it with semolina flour and leave it on a shallow baking tin, covered with a teacloth until I'm ready to cook it.

Sauce. 

• 1 kg. wild boar meat ( I use a bit of mince and some nice cubes of loin and steak)
• extra virgin olive oil
•  1 large white onion 
• 1 stick of celery 
• a small bunch of parsley, 
• 1 large carrot 
• two bay leaves 
• peppercorns, juniper berries 
• 1 litre  (3 cans) of chopped tomatoes 
• A bottle of Chianti or a good quality red wine

 
preparation:

1. Chop up the onion, celery and carrot into small pieces and put them into a container along with the wild boar meat, add the bay leaves, peppercorns and juniper berries, then cover with the chianti, stir and let stand for about 12 hours in the fridge or a cool place
2. Separate the meat and vegetables from the marinade, making sure to remove the bay leaves. In a large saucepan (I use a cast iron one because I think the flavours come out better) heat up the olive oil and add the chopped vegetables, let them cook for 5 minutes then add the meat and seal for 5 minutes, then add the wine from the marinade, cook for about 30 minutes or until all the wine has evaporated, add the pureed tomatoes, season and cover and cook for at least three hours over low heat, stirring often. 
3. Bring some water to the boil (1 litre for 100g of pasta), salt and add the pasta. The fresh pasta will need no more that 5 minutes to cook. Drain.
4. Put the pasta back into the saucepan and add some sauce, put over a low flame stirring for 3 minutes until the sauce is absorbed by the pasta, serve and add a little more sauce once plated. 
5. Serve with a good quality red wine and enjoy!

Sunday Ragù

So it’s Sunday once more and a Sunday favourite in my house is my Sunday Ragù. It’s like “Bolognese” sauce only different, if that makes any sense. This is a meat and tomato sauce using meat pieces instead of mince and 2 or 3 different types of meat. This sauce needs to “bubble” that’s the secret as it were. I normally bring it to the boil, cover the saucepan, turn the gas down to the minimum and allow it to bubble for up to 3 hours, the more it cooks, the better it is my mother in law always says! Here you go! Buona Domenica!
700g of veal, cut into chunks (if you don’t like veal a nice rump steak will do the trick)
200g of pork ribs
4 pork chops
4 Italian sausage  (I use one per person. If you can’t get Italian sausage a good quality beef sausage is fine)
2 onions
1.5 litres of Tomato passata (if you can’t find passata some good quality tinned tomatoes passed through the processer)
200g Extra virgin olive oil
1/4 of a litre of red wine
basil
salt and pepper

1. Heat a deep saucepan (one with a lid) on the hob
2. Add the oil and add the onion (chop it finely with a mezzaluna) and the meat to the saucepan
3. Let them cook for a few minutes just to colour the meat
4. Add the wine and allow it to “evaporate”. This takes about 5 minutes.
5. Add the passata and season with salt.
6. Bring to the boil and cover
7. Turn the heat down to the minimum and allow to “bubble” for 2 and a half to 3 hours. This is called “pippiare”
8. Stir the sauce often when it is bubbling on the hob, remember that sauce is stirred only with a wooden spoon and NEVER with a metal one!
9. Add the basil at the last minute to the sauce!
10. When it’s cooked I allow it to cool for about an hour before cooking the pasta, Penne rigate would be the best, or even better pennettone (big penne pasta)
11. When the pasta is cooked, drain and add to the saucepan again, add a little knob of butter and some sauce, put on a low heat and mix often so that the pasta absorbs the sauce.
12. Serve the pasta and turn on the heat back on under the sauce.
13. The meat is served as a main dish (secondo piatto) with some sauce and bread to “zuppare” (dip) into the sauce.

Enjoy!