I enjoy watching Lidia Bastianich on Create TV (PBS) and she had made Braised Short Ribs with Rigatoni. here is my version...Photos not as nice as her's, of course.
- 1 rack pork spare ribs, cut into single rib pieces
- Salt and Pepper
- 2 T. Oil
- 2 good sized sweet onion, halved and sliced.
- 6 to 8 peeled cloves of garlic
- 56 oz, canned plumb tomatoes. O like the oven roasted tomatoes if you can find them
- 6 pickled cherry peppers stemmed and seeded.
- 1 large bay leaf
- 1 t. dried thyme
- Fresh shopped parsley for garnish
- Grated Parmesan cheese
- Pasta of your choice. larger pasta holds up better with the heavy ribs.
Salt and pepper the ribs and brown, in a hot pan with the oil. do this is stages not to crowd the pan, setting the browned ribs aside in a bowl while finishing the rest of the ribs.
Once all ribs have been browned and removed add the onion to the pan (if there is a lot of oil remove all but a few tablespoons of it before adding the onion. cook onion until translucent ( to tell the truth I like it better if I take the time to caramelize the onion).
Just before the onions are ready, about 2 minutes, add the garlic. Once the garlic has cooked for about 2 minutes add in the peppers (chop them a little first) and stir them in with the onion and garlic for a minute and then add the tomatoes, bay, thyme, and return the ribs to the pot. thurn the pot to medium low and braise the ribs for a couple of hours, until ribs are tender. add some water if it gets too dry.
Remove the ribs from the sauce
Cook the pasta until just under done and add them to to the sauce to finish cooking. add pasta water to the sauce if needed. once done spoon the sauced pasta into a bowl and set the ribs around the edge.
Top with parsley and cheese.
I did find that the ribs were tender but got a little dry with this recipe and I am not sure how to avoid that so I will have to play around with this recipe some more.
