The photo above is when it had started to thicken upon standing a few minutes, but wasn't the finished product. I could have taken a better 'finished' photo but honestly I was hungry, it smelled (and tasted) so good I started to eat it, and didn't really care about getting a better picture. It's just for my personal blog - I don't make any money for posting recipes I make, and I have no income from the time I spend on this site, so... yeah. LOL.
I would normally use a different pasta with this one, but for a number of crazy things going on in our life right now, I have cleared out the pantry except for mere basics and all I have to choose from currently is macaroni shapes and spaghetti shapes. So, I chose spaghetti this time.
Pork and Lemon Ragu with Pasta
Bacon, cooked and crumbled or use real bacon crumbles bought - about 1/3 cup
olive oil
1 lg onion, diced
4-6 cloves garlic, minced
1 1/2 t salt
1 t thyme
1 t fresh black pepper
1/2 - 3/4 c cream or half and half
1 1/2 - 2 c water
1 1/2 lb. boneless pork roast
1 t dried lemon peel
1/4 c lemon juice
12 oz. pasta of choice
Romano or Parmesan cheese
In an oven proof pan with a lid, cook the bacon bits in the oil until they start to crisp up, add the onion and cook til soft and turning golden. Add the garlic and salt, pepper and thyme. Add the cream and water and whisk/stir. Add the pork roast, cutting it into half or even quarters. Bring to a boil and then remove, put the lid on and place into a 350 degree oven. Roast until tender (about 1 1/2 hours).
Add the lemon juice and zest. Let it set as you cook the pasta. When the pasta is almost done, use two large forks to pull apart the pork into shredded pieces. Add the pasta to the sauce reserving just a bit of the pasta water in case you want to thin the sauce. It should have a bit of liquid at this point as it will thicken as it stands. Let it thicken about 10-15 minutes before serving. You can stir in a bit of the pasta water to the leftovers before refrigerating, as it will absorb the liquid and become really thick by the next day.
Stirring in the half and half or cream to the onion/bacon mixture
Adding the pork to cook
Shredding the pork
Add the pasta and cheese (I used quesa fresca as I didn't have Romano on hand) It will be VERY LIQUID at this point as it hasn't thickened up at all yet. It will in the next 10-15 minutes.
