At Bobby’s, a sun- and salt-kissed new diner in Cronulla, the Med menu by ex-Totti’s chef Pablo Tordesillas matches the location: just a footpath separates the eatery from the shoreline.
“[Mediterranean] is a really easy theme for us to go down,” owner Adam Micola told Broadsheet in November. “Because the venue speaks for itself, right? The menu is so befitting of the location.”
That equals Euro-style share plates like grilled octopus, oily Cantabrian anchovies atop crisp crackers and this pork ragout. It’s a classic ragout, seething with pork and red wine, rosemary and thyme, and cinnamon quill and star anise. While you could pile it atop a pillowy polenta or perhaps potato, we say do like they do at Bobby’s and swish it through pasta-of-the-moment, mafaldine.
This dish requires three hours of simmering – but it’s mostly hands-off, making for an easy, yet impressive, main.
Pork ragout with mafaldine
Serves 4
Preparation time: 20 minutes
Cooking time: 4 hours
Ingredients
Olive oil, for cooking
2 red capsicums, roughly chopped
1 brown onion, roughly chopped
3 cloves garlic, peeled
1 bunch rosemary, leaves picked
1 bunch thyme, leaves picked
1 cinnamon quill
2 star anise
1 bay leaf
2 tbsp tomato paste
500ml red wine
2 tins chopped tomatoes
Salt, for seasoning
1kg pork shoulder, boned and skin off
400g mafaldine pasta (fresh or dried is fine)
Parmesan, to serve
Method
In a wide pot add olive oil to cover the base, add capsicums, onions and garlic and saute over medium heat until soft and lightly coloured.
Add the herbs, spices and bay leaf and saute for 15 minutes, then add tomato paste and cook out until paste has thickened.
Deglaze with red wine and reduce until alcohol has cooked out, by roughly half. Add the chopped tomatoes and season with salt.
Place the pork shoulder in sauce and cover with a lid. Reduce heat and simmer for 3 hours.
Allow sauce to cool, then remove pork shoulder. Using two forks, shred pork and place the shredded pork back into the sauce.
Cook the pasta according to packet instructions, then toss the pasta through the sauce, and serve with grated parmesan.
