The Dish: Wild Boar Bolognese

Move over chicken and beef, there's a new meat in town. We're cooking up a wild boar dish that will tempt your taste buds.

The Dish: Wild Boar Bolognese
The Restaurant: Gem
The Chef: Kevin Long

Ingredients:

-- 2 pounds chopped boar shoulder
-- 2 pounds ground boar meat
-- 1 pound chopped smoked boar bacon (Substitute regular smoked slab bacon if boar is not available)
-- Small dice of 2 onions, 1 carrot, and 1 rib of celery
-- 32 oz. can of heavy tomato purée
-- 3 C. dry white wine
-- 3 C. rich veal stock
-- 1 ea. cinnamon stick
-- 1 T. fennel seed
-- 5 ea. juniper berries
-- 1 large sachet of herbs

Directions:

In a heavy pan brown the meat in a small amount of olive oil. Season heavily with black peeper and a little salt. When starting to brown, about 10 minutes, add the vegetables and cook in for another 5 min. Deglaze with the wine to cook out. Finish with the remaining ingredients and very slowly simmer into a rich stew for 2-4 hours. Remove sachet and cool when all the meat is very tender. Finish seasoning with salt and more pepper if needed. At this point the ragù can be stored in the refrigerator for a week or frozen for 1 month.

To serve with Pasta:

Pan fry the cold ragù in butter in a sauté pan. About 3-4 oz. per person. Season with chopped rosemary and smooth out with mascarpone or heavy cream. Boil fresh pasta noodles separately or toss in par boiled half rigatoni pasta with a little bit of pasta water and cook down to coat the pasta. Finish with freshly grated Parmigiano Reggiano cheese and serve.

In the spring the pasta is served with sautéed fiddlehead ferns for a different texture and in the summer you can use oblique cuts of fresh garden zucchini, summer squash or patty pan squash.