I formulated this dish driving home from work one evening while trying to figure out how to shift gears from a weekend carnitas feast to a more elegant italian pasta night. I came up with the idea of showcasing the pork by crisping pieces of the leftover pork, and creating a reduction with shitake mushrooms and capers, drizzled over a nest of pasta on which the crispy-browned pieces of pork are perched. As you will see, the result was mighty fine!
Top with a small dollop of sour cream or cr?me fraiche
Directions
Pull apart the pork butt into large shreds, similar to what you would use for pork barbeque.
Saute in large frying pan on medium heat, until soft, and then remove and set aside for later:
- 2 tablespoons olive oil
- 1 tablespoon garlic, minced
- 1 shallot, chopped
In the same pan, crisp the chunks of pork on both sides on med/hi heat and set aside for later.
Sprinkle the flour into the same pan, and mix with the oil left from the pork. Then add the remaining ingredients from the list:
- 1 tablespoon fine flour
- 3 large shitake mushrooms, stems removed and thinly
- 1 teaspoon black pepper
- 1 teaspoon capers
- 1 cup beef stock
- salt to taste
On medium heat, reduce the sauce to about _ of the original volume.
Boil the pasta in salted water until al dente; use pappardelle, tagliatelle, wide fettucine or orecchiette.
Put a small mound or nest of pasta in the center of the plate or bowl.
Top with chunks of the crispy pork.
Spoon the mushroom mixture over the pork and the pasta.
Kids!
Chopping garlic and shallots, and measuring spices. A responsible, older child can brown the meat if supervised.
Notes...
This dish makes great use of leftover pulled pork or pork butt. It can actually be made with leftover potroast that is cooked to the falling apart stage. Basically, any meat destined for barbeque sandwhich makings is a good choice. I originally made this dish with pappardelle, which is a wide noodle, but orechiette (ears) and tagliatelle (less wide than pappardelle) all work really well. Fettucine will work fine, too. The type of mushrooms is not critical, but the firm texture of shitakes works especially well with the falling apart nature of the meat. And, the capers add a lot to this dish. Don't leave them out if you have them on hand.