Rachel Roddy’s recipe for pork ragu with herbs (for gnocchi or pasta)

Reporting by Theguardian describes the small kitchen in box 37 at Testaccio market run by Leonardo Cioni, where steam carrying the smell of onions, beans, cabbage and braised meat announces daily dishes such as lampredotto and trays of torta di ceci. The ragu featured uses capocollo (pork neck), a well-marbled cut whose mixture of flesh and fat gives the sauce its succulence.

The meat is minced rather than braised and shredded, and the ragu is seasoned with three herbs—bay, sage and rosemary—and can be made by mixing leaner cuts with back bacon so the sauce retains a generous amount of fat. The recipe instructs frying the minced pork in olive oil until it has lost all pinkness, then adding onion, bay, sage, minced and whole rosemary and a pinch of salt.

Add white wine, then tinned plum tomatoes, tomato concentrate and a small glass of warm water, half-cover and simmer gently for two hours, adding water if the pan seems dry, until the ragu is dense but succulent with an oily halo.