mom came to visit last weekend and we broke out the big guns: DALS pork shoulder ragu with parpadelle, of course. i say of course like i've ever cooked let alone bought a pork shoulder in my entire existence on this earth. the purchase of said pork shoulder was the only difficult part of this entire process. and that might have something to do with harris teeter and the vile employees they continue to hire. after the butcher assisted me in pointing out the location of available pork shoulders, he promptly disappeared. i was left to contemplate three choices of meat, all of which were 6 pounds. i was making this recipe for my mom, nelson, atticus and myself. we did not need 6 pounds of anything, DALS recipe called for 2-2.5 pounds. so this was close to triple the amount of meat necessary. also the original recipe calls for at least 3 hours of cook time. using my excellent math skills, i quickly deduced i would need at least 9 hours to make this 6 pounder. have you met me? this was really not happening. after sweetly explaining to the butcher that i was only planning to feed my small family and not an army, smiling the whole time, even doing that touch the hair thing; i asked him if he could trim the shoulder to about half the size and of course, i would OMG totally appreciate it. he just stared at me. for at least ten seconds. no reaction to the smile or super duper manners. and then he said (wait for it!), "what am i supposed to do with the rest of the meat?" um, what? the thoughts in my head went something like: oh i have quite a few ideas, one of them being shove it up your beep! or sell it someone else who only needs 2 pounds of meat or how about this really isn't my problem to solve! somehow i escaped with my 2 pounds of meat and i'm still alive, so i guess i'm not on the butcher's list of people to kill. phew.
back to the real point of this post. this pork shoulder is off the chain. it's pretty much the best things i've ever made. ever. it's mouth watering, tender and flavorful. it's beyond delicious piled high on top of warm parpadelle and coated in parmesan cheese. it's lovely cold, straight out of the fridge by the forkful. right after breakfast. it's charming with bits of caraway cheese, couscous and tomato corn salad. it also makes your house smell like you totally know how to cook. oh and it justified my purchase of a dutch oven, which i 've wanted forever. also this 2 pounder has fed us for over 3 meals, not including the snacks, tastes and bites. oh and we still have leftovers sitting in our fridge. but not for long.
i followed the recipe to a T. don't change a thing. these people know what they're doing.
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