Pork Marinara Pasta Sauce

Pork Marinara Pasta Sauce or Pork “Gravy” as we say in New Jersey, is a pork-based tomato sauce which uses readily available ingredients and yields a deeply flavorful pasta sauce.  This family recipe comes from Vito’s maternal grandmother and mother who would make it a fairly often.  Oddly enough, we’ve never seen this really tasty sauce on a menu in any Italian-American restaurant. 

This recipe makes a good quantity of sauce; Pork Marinara Pasta Sauce, sans pasta, can be portioned into sealed containers and frozen for future use within a month. Packed with rich flavor and not fatty, we’re sure Pork “Gravy” will become a popular pasta sauce at your dinner table. We recommend a light starter, like Broccoli al Limone, when serving Pork Marinara Pasta Sauce over your favorite pasta.

Total Time: 1 hour, 50 minutes. Serves 8.

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Ingredients:

• ¼ cup Cooking Oil, Olive/Canola Oil blend is recommended
• 1 ½ lbs bone-in Pork Chops
• 1 tsp fresh Rosemary leaves, minced
• 4 Garlic cloves
• 1 medium-size Onion
• 1 28 oz can Crushed Tomatoes
• ½ cup dry Red Wine
• 2 Bay Leaves, preferably fresh
• 6 fresh Sage leaves, minced
• 1 ½ Tbs fresh Marjoram leaves
• ½ tsp Crushed Red Pepper flakes
• ¼ tsp coarse Sea Salt
• 1 tb fresh Flat Leaf/Italian Parsley leaves, minced
• ¼ tsp ground Nutmeg

Preparation:

1. Heat the cooking oil in a Dutch oven over a medium-high heat.
2. Brown the pork chops in the Dutch oven on both sides, remove to a plate.
3. While the pork chops are browning, mince the rosemary leaves and set aside in a small bowl, mince the garlic and finely chop the onion and set these aside in a separate bowl.
4. After the pork chops have browned, add the rosemary to the hot oil and sauté for 1 minute.
5. Add the garlic and onion to the Dutch oven, stir to mix with the rosemary, and sauté uncovered until the vegetables begin to soften.
6. Add crushed tomatoes, red wine, bay, sage and marjoram leaves, red pepper flakes, sea salt and parsley to Dutch oven, stir, cover and simmer.
7. Using your hands, debone the pork chops, breaking the meat into bite-size or smaller pieces; add the pork and any juices from the plate back into the sauce, stir, cover and continue to simmer for 45 minutes to 1 hour until the sauce has reached a nice, thick consistency.
8. Serve Pork Marinara Pasta Sauce over your favorite pasta.