Grandma’s Rigatoni and Meat Sauce

You’ll need:

• 1-lb meaty pork shank
• 1-lb meaty beef shank
• 1/4 cup olive oil
• 1-cup chopped onion
• 4-garlic cloves smashed
• 2-bay leaves
• 4-28 oz can whole Italian plum tomatoes crushed by hand
• 1-cup of water to slosh around all 4-cans
• 1 cup of a dry red wine
• Salt & pepper
• 1-tsp crushed red pepper flakes

Directions: 

1. Season the shanks with salt and pepper.
2. Heat the oil in a Dutch oven or heavy pot then brown the shanks on all sides over a med/high heat. Remove to a plate.
3. Add the onion, garlic, red pepper flakes and sauté for 5 minutes.
4. Add the wine and deglaze the pot with a wooden spoon scraping all the brown bits.
5. Add hand crushed tomatoes all the juice, water, bay leaves. Stir and bring to a boil.
   6-Add the shanks and any juice that is on the plate.
6. Using a tong push the shanks under the sauce and add a pinch of salt n pepper.
7. Bring to a boil.
8. Cover 3/4 of the pot to allow the steam to escape and lower the heat to a low simmer allow this to cook for 3-4 hours.
9. Stir a couple times an hour. Make sure it’s a low simmer so not to burn the sauce.
10. After 3 hours remove the shanks, the meat should be falling off the bones.
11. Remove any meat from the sauce and shred the meat with a forks and add back to the sauce.
12. Remove the bay leaves.
13. Always cook your pasta 2-min short of recommended time and finish cooking in the sauce.

This sauce is a long process but in the end it’s worth the time. The thickness of the sauce can be adjusted at the final stage. I serve mine with a hearty rigatoni, some pecorino Romano cheese and a drizzle of olive oil.
Daniel Mancini