Recipes › Chilli Pepper (Hot) › Chilli Pepper and Pork Ragu
Chilli Pepper and Pork Ragu
This slow-cooked Italian-style ragu uses hot chillies as a principal flavouring agent rather than a background accent, in the tradition of the Calabrian cooking from southern Italy where chilli and pork are a fundamental pairing. The chillies collapse into the sauce over two hours, lending heat, fruitiness and colour that builds through the whole bowl. Serve over pappardelle with a generous hand of Parmesan.
Chilli Pepper (Hot) is in season now. More chilli pepper (hot) recipes, or see what to sow this month where you are.
Ingredients
- 6 Chilli Pepper (Hot), red, finely chopped, seeds included
- 700 g pork shoulder, cut into 4cm cubesPork belly also works — fattier and richer
- 800 g tinned whole plum tomatoes, crushed by hand
- 150 ml red wineContains sulphites
- 1 onion, finely diced
- 4 cloves garlic, finely sliced
- 1 tsp fennel seeds, lightly crushed
- 2 tbsp tomato puree
- 3 tbsp olive oil
- 2 bay leaves
- 1 tsp fine salt
- 350 g pappardelleor rigatoni
- 40 g Parmesan, finely grated (optional)omit for dairy-free
Contains: milk, sulphites.
Method
- Heat 2 tablespoons of olive oil in a large, heavy-based casserole over a high heat. Season the pork cubes with half the salt. Brown the pork in two batches so the pan is never crowded, turning each piece to get good colour on all sides — about 4 minutes per batch. Set the browned pork aside.About 10 min
- Reduce the heat to medium. Add the remaining tablespoon of olive oil, then add the diced onion. Cook, stirring, for 8 minutes until soft and translucent.About 8 min
- Add the sliced garlic, chopped chillies and crushed fennel seeds. Cook for 3 minutes, stirring, until the garlic is golden and the chillies have softened slightly.About 3 min
- Add the tomato puree and stir it into the vegetables. Cook for 2 minutes until it darkens slightly.About 2 min
- Pour in the red wine and let it bubble vigorously for 2 minutes, scraping up any sticky bits from the base of the pot.About 2 min
- Return the browned pork to the pot. Add the crushed tomatoes, bay leaves and remaining salt. Stir everything together and bring to a gentle simmer.About 3 min
- Cover with a lid slightly ajar and cook over the lowest heat for 1 hour 45 minutes, stirring every 25 minutes or so. The pork is ready when it falls apart when pressed with a spoon. If the sauce looks too thin with 30 minutes to go, remove the lid entirely.About 105 min
- Use two forks or a wooden spoon to break the pork into shreds directly in the pot. Remove the bay leaves. Taste and adjust seasoning.About 2 min
- Cook the pappardelle in well-salted boiling water according to the packet instructions. Drain, reserving a mugful of pasta water. Add the pasta to the ragu and toss together over a medium heat for 1 minute, adding pasta water a splash at a time until the sauce coats the pasta glossily. Serve with Parmesan if using.About 12 min
Tips
- Really do brown the pork in batches with space between each piece — crowding the pan steams the meat rather than searing it, and you lose the caramelised flavour that makes the ragu deep rather than flat.
- The ragu is noticeably better made a day ahead. The chilli heat integrates overnight and the whole thing becomes rounder. Just reheat gently with a splash of water.
- If your homegrown chillies are particularly fierce, taste one raw before you start and adjust the quantity. Six chillies of a mild cayenne type is very different to six of a Thai bird's eye variety.
Ring the changes
- Use 700g beef shin in place of pork shoulder for a richer, darker ragu — increase the cooking time by 30 minutes.
- Make it a ragù bianco by omitting the tomatoes and using 400ml chicken stock instead, which makes the chilli flavour even more pronounced.
Keeping it
The ragu (without pasta) keeps in the fridge for up to 4 days or freezes for up to 3 months. Store pasta and sauce separately where possible.
In the app this recipe finds you
Log what you've picked and GrowMore CookMore matches it to 1,918 more recipes like this one, tells you what's ready before the frost gets it, and keeps the freezer honest. Free to start.
More from the same crop
Blistered fresh chillies and salty pan-fried halloumi are piled onto warm homemade flatbreads with a cool, garlicky cucumber yoghurt. This is a proper weeknight dinner — fast, satisfying, and the kind of thing you will make on rotation through late summer when your chilli plants are going mad. The chillies are the point here, roasted directly in the pan until they char and soften into something sweet, smoky, and genuinely hot.
30 min · easy · Chilli Pepper (Hot)A deeply savoury American-Southern-style cornbread packed with diced fresh hot chillies throughout — not stirred in as an afterthought, but enough to give every single bite a slow, building heat. The crumb is moist and tender, the crust is crisp from a cast-iron pan, and it is done in under 40 minutes from start to finish. Serve warm alongside beans, chilli or grilled sweetcorn.
35 min · easy · Chilli Pepper (Hot)A deeply flavoured Mexican-style table salsa where the chillies are genuinely in charge. Tomatoes and tomatillos provide acidity and body, but it is the fire-blistered chillies — roasted until their skins blacken and their flesh turns jammy — that define the whole thing. This is not a pourable sauce but a thick, smoky, spoonable salsa that improves enormously after an hour in the fridge.
35 min · easy · Chilli Pepper (Hot)
Allotment keeper in the North East of England, the voice behind the Tony C Smith YouTube channel, and the gardener who built GrowMore CookMore. Club numbers on this page update as members log their plots. Last updated 4 April 2026.