Braised Pork & Fennel
Your kitchen will smell celestial when this is cooking, and guests will moan a little as they consume it.
Ingredients
3- to 4-pound bone-in pork shoulder roast
Salt and pepper
1 Tbsp. olive oil
3 shallots, quartered lengthwise
2 small carrots, cut into 2-inch-long by ½-inch-wide batons
1 large fennel bulb, quartered, cored and sliced
2 Tbsp. chopped garlic
1 Tbsp. fennel seeds
1 to 2 cups dry white wine, divided
Directions
Dry roast with paper towels and bring to room temperature. Generously salt and pepper it.
Heat oven to 300 degrees. Heat a heavy braising pot over medium-high flame for several minutes. Add olive oil and brown the roast to give it a deep brown crust all over.
Remove meat to a plate. Adjust heat to medium-low, add shallots and carrots and sauté a few minutes. Add fennel bulb, garlic and fennel seeds; cook a few minutes. Add ¼ cup wine and stir to deglaze bottom of pot.
Nestle roast into the pot, surrounding it with the veggies. Add enough wine to come about half way up meat. Bring to simmer. Tent roast with foil, cover pot tightly and place in oven.
Cook until meat is very tender and pulls apart easily, turning it every hour or so, about 2 ½ to 3 hours. Let stand at room temperature, lid ajar, at least 20 minutes (longer is good) or cool and refrigerate overnight.
Remove meat from pot, skim fat from liquid and then simmer sauce briefly to thicken it a bit. The veggies will have partially dissolved in to the sauce by this point; you can leave them as-is or smash them with a spoon to further thicken the sauce.
Pull roast apart into large, semi-shredded pieces. Return meat to sauce to reheat it. Serve over polenta, mashed potatoes or gnocchi.
More Recipes
More Recipes by This Author
Edible in your mailbox
