Half-hour pork ragù with currants and clove

Name: Half-hour pork ragù with currants and clove
Total time: 35 min
Yield: 2 servings
Cuisine: Italian
Ingredients: 6 oz orecchiette; 10 oz ground pork; 1 zucchini, halved lengthwise and thinly sliced; 2 cloves garlic, roughly chopped; 1 tbsp capers; 2 tbsp dried currants; 2 tbsp tomato paste; 2 tbsp mascarpone; ¼ tsp freshly grated nutmeg; ¼ tsp ground white pepper; ⅛ tsp ground cloves; ¼ tsp red pepper flakes (optional); ¼ cup grated Pecorino Romano; olive oil, salt

A ragù in thirty-five minutes, sweetened with fruit and spiced like a Christmas ham.

At a Glance

Time

35 min

Serves

Story

Quatre épices is the French four-spice blend behind this one, and it is simply white pepper, nutmeg, ginger and cloves. Made fresh it is better than the jar and you almost certainly own three of the four already. The clove is the one to be timid with. A quarter teaspoon reads as warmth, half a teaspoon reads as a pomander.

Ingredients

6 oz orecchiette
10 oz ground pork
1 zucchinihalved lengthwise and thinly sliced
2 cloves garlicroughly chopped
1 tbsp capers
2 tbsp dried currants
2 tbsp tomato paste
2 tbsp mascarpone
¼ tsp freshly grated nutmeg
¼ tsp ground white pepper
⅛ tsp ground cloves
¼ tsp red pepper flakesoptional
¼ cup grated Pecorino Romano
olive oilsalt

Method

Sweet, salty and faintly medieval. The currants and the capers are doing the same job from opposite directions, and the dish falls apart without either.

Salted water on to boil. Cover the currants with ¼ cup of hot water and leave them to plump for 10 minutes. Keep that liquid.
Sear the zucchini in olive oil over medium high, 3 to 4 minutes undisturbed, then season and cook on until softened. Lift it out.
Same pan, more oil. Pork, garlic, capers, nutmeg, white pepper and cloves all together. Season, break up the meat, 4 to 5 minutes to lightly browned.
Tomato paste and the red pepper flakes. Stir hard for a minute until the paste turns the color of terracotta, then in with the currants and their soaking liquid plus another ¼ cup of water. Simmer 2 to 3 minutes.
Boil the orecchiette to just shy of al dente. Save ½ cup of the water.
Everything into the pot together with half that water, over medium high, tossed constantly 1 to 2 minutes until the little ears are properly coated. Off the heat, stir the mascarpone through until it vanishes.
Pecorino over the top, and more than you think.