Pasta with pork while emptying the fridge

The other night I got home from work and pondered what to fix for dinner. I didn’t stop at the store on the way home, but I needed to fix something. I knew that I had some leftover roast pork in the refrigerator. Then I spied the leftover homemade pizza sauce. Finally I saw a package of shiitake mushrooms and an idea started to form.

This was one of those meals that I started cooking before I really knew what I was going to do, but it came out ok. Here’s what I did.

Olive oil

2 cups of sliced roast pork

1/2 cup thinly sliced shallots

1 clove of garlic, minced

1/2 tsp red pepper flakes

1/4 lb. shiitake mushrooms, sliced

1 tsp. fresh ground white pepper

Wondra instant flour

1 tsp. smoked paprika

1 cup of white wine

2 cups of homemade pizza sauce

1 cup fresh grated parmesan

1/2 pound thick spaghetti, cooked and drained

Preparation

Heat a large skillet and add olive oil to cover the bottom. Add the pork, shallots, garlic, mushrooms, the red pepper flakes and white pepper. Cover and let that cook for about five minutes, until the mushrooms are soft.

Sprinkle on a generous dusting of Wondra instant flour and stir until it is mixed in and then stir in the smoked paprika. Add the white wine and bring to a boil, stirring. Add the pizza sauce (if you don’t have leftover pizza sauce, use a can of crushed tomatoes). Let that simmer ten minutes, stirring often.

While that is simmering, cook and drain the pasta. Toss the pasta with the grated parmesan and the sauce. Give everything another grinding of white pepper.

Serving

To serve this, simply pile a huge pile of the pasta on a plate. Grate some more parmesan cheese over the top. Add some sautéed broccoli, a crisp salad and homemade bread. Open a bottle of Montepulciano dʼAbruzzo and dinner is ready and your leftovers will be gobbled up.