Expert: Davide Giovanni Papa - 11/4/2006

Question
Hi there,

I just returned from a little Umbria/Tuscany excursion where I sampled some delicious pappardelle al ragu cinghiale. Yum! I wonder, however, how it's possible for there to be enough wild boar to feed all of the cinghiale eaters? Are we all really getting wild boar meat in Orvieto, etc.?

Answer
Dear Kleo-

PAPPARDELLE al CINGHIALE-I've given the the Classical  recipe so look back on previous answer when looking at this reply-

If you have eaten the original classical recipe, and not a local "casalinga" wild boar recipe- then in reality no much Wild Boar is used-


Its not a Ragu at all- and because so little boar in needed  to give the dish its distinctive character-then Plenty such wild boar exists-EG: For 4 people around 8 oz of minced  SMOKED wild boar and 2 oz of salted pork belly are used- added with porcini mushrooms, grappa, red wine , carrots onions..etc..etc.to give th final rich dark sauce-

So it a cured SMOKED wild boar- similar to Parma ham- thats being used, not raw fresh boar meat, which has a more pronounced game taste-thus the flavour is very rich due to the cured properties of the the boar used. A little of such goes a long way-


I hope the above insight helps-Such recipes are nearly impossible to do from another country, if the main ingredient "Smoked wild boar" is not available-

Kind Regards
Davide Giovanni papa
www.chefdavide.freeservers.com