Slow Cooker Pork Ragu

I have a burning question tonight.  Do you cook with good wine or do you save the good wine for drinking and cook with the cheap stuff?  I'm genuinely interested in hearing your opinions about cooking wine. 🍷 This is what my brain dwells on - food and wine.  

There are professional chefs that swear that your finished dish will only be as good as the individual ingredients that you add.  I can only assume that they believe that inferior wine will result in a less than superb product.  Can a cup of two buck Chuck really ruin a good batch of meaty marinara or Coq au Vin?  I really don't know and before I mess up a perfectly fine batch of short ribs, I need to find out.  

Maybe the answer isn't as black and white as I'm trying to make it.  Perhaps there are some recipes where expensive wine is necessary and others where boxed wine would suffice.  White wine used as an ingredient in the sauce over fresh mussels might require a higher quality wine than the red wine in beef stew, for example.  As for me, I use whatever wine I happen to have open on the day that I need it for a recipe.  I'm somewhat embarrassed to admit it, but I've even been known to swap a white for a red in a recipe if I"m trying to use up the last few drops in a wine bottle.  🤷🏻‍♀️

This recipe for Pork Ragu only calls for 1/2 cup of red wine which seems like an insignificant amount but it plays a really crucial role in how all the flavors of this dish come together.  The pork, the tomatoes, the pancetta, the wine and the herbs all have to marry together in perfect harmony to create a tasty dish.  Altering just one of the ingredients can throw off the whole balance of flavors and really lead to a displeasing result.  So do I roll the dice and take a gamble on a cheap wine or go all out and use a full bodied red wine?  

Slow Cooker Pork Ragu
2 pounds boneless pork butt, cut into 1/2" cubes
2 teaspoons kosher salt
1 teaspoon pepper
28 ounce can crushed tomatoes
4 ounces pancetta, diced
1 onion, chopped fine
2 carrots, diced
1/2 cup red wine
1/4 cup olive oil
6 sprigs fresh thyme
2 Tablespoons tomato paste
4 cloves garlic, minced
1 teaspoon fennel seeds
1/4 teaspoon red pepper flakes
1/2 cup chopped fresh parsley
1 pound cooked pasta
​parmesan cheese

Sprinkle pork with salt and pepper.  Add to slow cooker. 

Add tomatoes, onion, pancetta, carrots, wine, oil, thyme, tomato paste, garlic, fennel and red pepper flakes. 

Cover and cook 8-10 hours on low.  

Discard thyme sprigs. Shred pork.

Stir in parsley.  Toss with pasta and top with parmesan cheese. 

I know that you're all waiting with baited breath to find out exactly what type of wine I used in my Pork Ragu. 😂  It was a half cup of my dad's homemade red wine.  I'm 60% sure that it was a cabernet but to be honest, the sharpie markings that my dad uses to identify his different wines had been rubbed off the neck of the bottle.  Soooo - whatever it was - it was good.  Both in the ragu and in my wine glass.  🍷

​Ciao!

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