Tasty Recipes from Recipe Wizards

Stuart Leavenworth, our Chef Apprentice, will occasionally share an Oliveto recipe. Today it's a sugo – a rustic and intense meat sauce that is spooned on meat dishes at the Oakland restaurant. Chef Paul Canales developed this version for home cooks.

The recipe involves a lot of work and time, but the payoff is huge. The final sauce can be frozen in ice-cube trays and used for months. Try it on pork scallopine, pork chops or roast pork. If you don't like pork, try it with other cuts of meat, such as scraps of lamb or goat.

Pork sugo

Prep time: 35 minutes

Cook time: 3 hours, 45 minutes

Makes about 1 quart

INGREDIENTS

4 ounces pancetta, thinly sliced

1 pound chicken legs and or thighs, cut into 2-inch pieces with a cleaver

2 pounds pork leg (dark muscle) or shoulder meat, cut into 1-inch pieces

1 1/2 teaspoons salt

1/2 teaspoon black pepper

1 medium red onion, thinly sliced

1 small carrot, thinly sliced

1 medium bay leaf (Mediterranean variety)

3 cloves

2 quarts homemade meat broth or store-bought substitute

INSTRUCTIONS

Place the pancetta, chicken and pork meat in a heavy-bottomed sauce pot (14 inches in diameter by 9 inches high works best for us in the restaurant) and begin rendering over medium-high heat. As the meat renders fat and liquid, raise the heat to high and add the salt and black pepper.

As the liquid begins to evaporate, the meat will begin to brown. At this point, pay close attention to the pot and adjust the heat down to medium. Be careful to stir the pot only to facilitate building the foundation of residues on the bottom of the pot. Remember, you are working for the residues stuck to the bottom as opposed to nicely browned meat with a clean-bottomed pot.

This initial process should take about 30 minutes, at which time you should add the onion, carrot, bay leaf and cloves, and reduce the heat to medium-low. Continue cooking the mixture until the onions are translucent and the carrots are soft, about 10 to 15 minutes.

Next, begin the deglazing process by raising the heat to high, adding a couple of ladlefuls of broth and scraping the bottom of the pot with a wooden spoon. As the residues come free, continue cooking over high heat until the liquid begins to reduce to a glaze and form another foundation. At this point, add a few more ladlefuls of broth. Repeat this process 2 more times.

After the final reduction, add the remaining broth, bring to a boil, then reduce the heat to low, achieving a very lazy simmer. Cover with parchment paper and cook for about 2 hours.

To finish the sugo, pass the contents of the pot through the medium dye of a food mill into another pot, taking care to press all the liquid from the solids and scraping any residues from the bottom of the food mill. You should be left with a dry, fibrous mass in the food mill and luxurious, silky sugo in the pot.

While you will have more sugo than needed for a single dish, the rest can be frozen in ice cube trays, with the cubes reserved in a freezer bag.

Tags: 2 Quarts, Bay Leaf, Black Pepper, Carrot Bay, Chef Paul, Chicken Legs, Cuts Of Meat, Dark Muscle, Home Cooks, Inch Pieces, Meat Broth, Meat Dishes, Meat Sauce, Pork Meat, Pound Chicken, Red Onion, Restaurant Chef, Sauce Pot, Stuart Leavenworth, Teaspoons Salt