Culinary Explorer
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Pappardelle al Cinghiale
Created by Chef Graziella
Wide ribbons of fresh egg pasta draped in the dark, gamey ragù of Tuscan hunting country. The boar roam the forests of Maremma and Chianti; the sauce simmers for hours until wildness becomes tenderness.
In the hills of Tuscany, where chestnut forests cover the slopes and wild boar root through the underbrush, this is what hunters' wives have cooked for generations. Cinghiale is not domesticated pork. It is lean, muscular, deeply flavored meat from an animal that has lived free. It demands respect and time.
The ragù builds from a proper soffritto, as all Italian sauces must. Onion, carrot, and celery cooked until they nearly dissolve. Then red wine, not white. Tuscans drink Chianti; they cook with it too. The juniper berries are essential. They echo the forests where the boar lived, the wild aromatics it ate. Rosemary, bay, a whisper of cinnamon and clove. These are medieval flavors, and this is a medieval dish dressed in modern form.
Pappardelle are the only correct pasta. These wide ribbons catch the shredded meat and thick sauce in their folds. Narrow pasta would be overwhelmed. This is robust food for cold weather, for Sunday lunch after a morning in the hills, for feeding people you love when the wind rattles the shutters.
Ingredients
wild boar shoulder
Quantity
2 pounds
cut into 1-inch cubes
extra virgin olive oil
Quantity
1/4 cup
yellow onion
Quantity
1 medium
diced fine
| Ingredient | Quantity |
|---|---|
| wild boar shouldercut into 1-inch cubes | 2 pounds |
| extra virgin olive oil | 1/4 cup |
| yellow oniondiced fine | 1 medium |
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