Fake meat sauce -- "ragù finto"

Ragù finto

I cooked a pork shoulder last week and had a lot of it leftover.  It was sitting in my fridge -- big chunks just waiting to be put to a good use.

I thought about making a hearty tomato sauce, appropriate for the winter season, using the pork -- dispersing it in a tomato ragù. 

Wow, what a great result.  It's like pork ribs that had simmered in the tomatoes for hours and had fallen off the bone.  The boneless shoulder is fatty and rich, and becomes even more tender in the tomato sauce, and it tends to further fall apart. 

The sauce works very well served on a short pasta like rigatoni or penne rigate. 

1 medium onion, chopped
1/2 bell pepper, chopped
3 cloves garlic, chopped
1 carrot, shredded, then minced fine
Salt & pepper to taste

2 28-oz cans tomatoes (1 can crushed, 1 can whole)
1 cup red wine
1/2 cup water

~ 4 cups pulled pork, cubed
Bay leaf
Thyme
Salt & pepper to taste

Film a 6-quart saucepan with olive oil.  Sauté the onion, carrot, pepper, and garlic about 5 minutes until tender.  Salt & pepper to taste.

Add the crushed tomatoes.  Pour the whole tomatoes into a bowl and crush with your hands.  Add to the pot.  Add wine.  Add the cubed pork with any pork fat, congealed drippings, or roasted vegetables that you saved with the pork.

Add bay leaf, thyme, and salt & pepper to taste.

Simmer the sauce about 45 minutes until you can't stand it any longer and you just have to taste it.  Feel free to drop a piece of Italian bread into it to sample.