A while ago I subscribed to one of these meal kit delivery services, where they deliver recipes and all the ingredients pre-kitted and packed. Unfortunately while the ingredients seemed great, one of the recipes was for something that really did not pique my culinary interest and so the ground pork made its way into my not-so-cavernous freezer.
I finally decided that I should do *something* with it, as it was very good quality, and because I wanted to make something in the crockpot now that the weather is ever so slightly starting to turn cooler.
After perusing a couple recipes, it seemed that there were a few consistent ingredients of a pureed mire poix, tomato paste, boxed (or canned) tomatoes, and some red wine (of course in addition to either ground beef or pork). After making some educated guesses on about how much of each to throw in, I threw it all in the crock pot and crossed my fingers that it would turn out reasonably good.
All I can say is that coming home to the scent of cooking ragu was one of the best feelings, and on top of some whole wheat linguine, made for an extremely satisfying dinner. Paired with a strong California Zinfandel, it was the perfect Monday night no-brainer dinner. (It also made for leftover for at least 2 more meals, which is always great for those nights that there really isn’t time to cook much!)
Ingredients
- 1-2 large carrots
- 2-3 stalks of celery
- 1 yellow onion
- 1 tbsp tomato paste
- 1 box (28 oz) Pomi crushed tomatoes
- 1.5 cups red wine
- 1 lb whole wheat linguine (whole wheat optional, but adds nice texture)
- parmesan cheese, grated (optional for topping)
- 1 lb ground pork
Directions
- Put the onion, celery and carrot in the bowl of a food processor (easier to chop into 1″ chunks first) and puree until fairly smooth. Empty into crock pot.
- Add tomato paste, crushed tomatoes, and red wine to crock pot.
- In a skillet, heat to medium-high and brown the ground pork unless mostly cooked. Add to crock pot.
- Mix everything in crock pot thoroughly, set for 8 hours on low (longer is okay, as well).
- In a pot of salted water, cook linguine (or whichever pasta you prefer) according to box directions. For us, the whole wheat linguine was 12-13 minutes. Drain the pasta noodles.
- Serve with sauce poured liberally on top. Add grated cheese if you wish on top and eat immediately!
Serves about 4 very hungry people
There’s no greater sense of accomplishment than arriving home on a weeknight to an already-cooked, excellent meal – thank goodness for Crock Pots, and thanks for sharing this delightful new recipe!