One Pot Spicy Pork Ragu with Orzo – this deeply flavored spicy pork ragu with orzo makes for a delicious and comforting dinner. So simple and ready in just 30 minutes.
Today I have for you another one of my one pot recipes which I love so much, a spicy pork ragu with orzo. I love these dishes, they’re so easy and quick to make, and perfect use of that ground pork that I always seem to have in the freezer. This is why I love these quick and easy meals, they’re perfect to use those staple ingredients you have around.
What Is Ragu?
Ragu is a meat based sauce that is commonly served with pasta in Italian cuisine. It cooks down low and slow and develops tons of flavor as it cooks. Ragu is a great blank canvas for developing some really interesting, complex flavor.
What Is Orzo?
Orzo is a small cut pasta that tastes heavenly in rich and hearty dishes just like the one I’m writing out for you all today. It packs some good protein and pairs well with a good variety of veggies, I’ll be sure to give you some good recommendations below.
Ingredient Notes
- Olive oil – We want a nice neutral tasting oil to cook down our other ingredients listed below.
- Pork – We’re using ground pork today for all that flavor and a nice moist addition.
- Mirepoix – The flavor base of nearly any sauce, soup, or stew. Carrots, onion, and celery diced up fine.
- Seasoning – Salt and pepper.
- Herbs – Dried oregano and basil for flavor concentrate that won’t burn.
- Broth – Beef broth, low sodium so we can control the sodium content of our dish.
- Wine – We’re using a nice lush, full bodied red wine today. Look for something on the drier side.
- Red pepper flakes – This will add some great heat to our dish, feel free to use as much or as little of this ingredient as you like.
- Tomatoes – 1 can of tomato juice.
- Pasta – I’m using orzo today, it’s small enough to cook down in our ragu and absorb all of that amazing sauce.
- Parmesan cheese – Totally optional as garnish but let’s be honest, is Parmesan ever truly optional on a pasta dish?
- Hot sauce – Use whatever brand you prefer, my favorite is sriracha.
- Parsley – Fresh and chopped up fine.
Other Ingredients To Add To This Pork Ragu
Another great thing about this recipe, besides it being, quick, one pot and delicious, is the fact that it’s quite versatile. Although I give you a basic recipe here, feel free to add what you’d like to bulk it up a bit!
Veggies
- Spinach
- Broccoli
- Asparagus
- Peas
- Mushrooms
Meat
You can use ground beef, chicken, or turkey in place of the pork. If you’re using poultry, add an extra 2 tbsp of olive oil to cook the meat.
Starches
You don’t just have just use orzo, you can use some other starches if you’d like! I’m just obsessed with orzo lately, because you know what, it only takes about 6 minutes to cook!
- Any small shaped pasta
- Couscous
- Long grain rice, like Basmati
How To Make Spicy Pork Ragu with Orzo
- Brown the meat: In a large skillet or Dutch Oven heat the olive oil over medium-high heat. Add ground pork and cook until pork is no longer pink, breaking it up as you go along.
- Cook the veggies: Add the chopped onion, celery, and carrot to the skillet and cook for another 3 minutes until the onion and carrot are soft and the onion turns translucent.
- Combine the ragu: Stir in the red wine. Add the red pepper flakes, oregano, basil and stir well. Add the orzo, tomato juice, beef broth, hot sauce and stir well. Season with salt and pepper as needed.
- Finish the dish: Reduce the heat to medium low and cook for about 10 to 12 minutes or until all of the liquid is absorbed, stirring occasionally. Garnish with parsley and serve with grated Parmesan cheese.
Too Spicy For Your Liking?
Feel free to adjust the amount of hot sauce and red pepper flakes to suit your preference.
How to Serve
This rich, spicy pork ragu pairs beautifully with light and simple sides like salads and roasted veggies. This Ragu Gnocchi is completely satisfying on its own so if you’d rather just curl up on the couch with a big old bowl, I won’t stop you.
- Creamy Cucumber Salad
- Greek Salad
- Mediterranean Couscous Salad
- Kale And Quinoa Salad With Lemon Vinaigrette
- Tabbouleh Salad
- Italian Roasted Mushrooms And Veggies
Prefer To Cook Without Wine?
If you don’t like to cook with wine then feel free to substitute this ingredient for an equals amount of additional chicken or beef broth.
Leftovers
Fridge
You can store this spicy pork ragu in an air tight shallow container in the fridge for 3 – 4 days. Just be sure to allow it to fully cool before placing it in the fridge.
Freezer
You can freeze this dish as well! Just hold off on adding the orzo till you’re ready to eat it. Freeze the Ragu in a shallow airtight container once fully cooled. Allow to thaw overnight in the fridge before heating back up on the stove top and incorporating your orzo.
More Incredible Pasta Recipes To Try:
- Creamy Sun Dried Tomato Gnocchi
- Garlic and Parsley Butter Chicken with Gnocchi
- One Pot Chicken Florentine Gnocchi
- Chicken And Gnocchi Dumpling Soup
- One Skillet Ham And Cheese Gnocchi
- One Pot Creamy Parmesan Pasta
- Easy Pasta Alfredo
- Creamy Parmesan Orzo with Chicken and Asparagus
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One Pot Spicy Pork Ragu with Orzo
Ingredients
- 1 tablespoon olive oil
- 1 pound ground pork
- 1 medium onion chopped
- 1 stalk celery chopped
- 1 medium carrot chopped
- 1/4 cup red wine
- 1/8 teaspoon red pepper flakes
- 1 teaspoon dried oregano
- 1 teaspoon dried basil
- 1 1/2 cup dry orzo
- 20 ounce tomato juice (1 can)
- 1 1/2 cup beef broth low sodium
- 1 tablespoon hot sauce I used Sriracha
- 1/2 teaspoon salt or to taste
- 1/4 teaspoon pepper or to taste
- 1 tablespoon fresh Parsley chopped
- Parmesan cheese for serving
Instructions
- In a large skillet or Dutch Oven heat the olive oil over medium-high heat. Add ground pork and cook until pork is no longer pink, breaking it up as you go along.
- Add the chopped onion, celery, and carrot to the skillet and cook for another 3 minutes until the onion and carrot are soft and the onion turns translucent.
- Stir in the red wine. Add the red pepper flakes, oregano, basil and stir well. Add the orzo, tomato juice, beef broth, hot sauce and stir well. Season with salt and pepper as needed.
- Reduce the heat to medium low and cook for about 10 to 12 minutes or until all of the liquid is absorbed, stirring occasionally.
- Garnish with parsley and serve with grated Parmesan cheese.
Recipe Notes
- Orzo is a small rice-shaped variety of pasta. You can use any type of pasta that you like, or is most convenient.
- Feel free to adjust the amount of hot sauce and red pepper flakes to suit your preference.
- You can use ground beef, chicken, or turkey in place of the pork. If you’re using poultry, add an extra 2 tbsp of olive oil to cook the meat.
- Please keep in mind that nutritional information is a rough estimate and can vary greatly based on products used.
So good! Due to limited resources, I didn’t use celery or carrots and I had to use pork sausage, but WOW was this good. My family loved it too. Saving it for later!
Delicious, a lovely rich recipe, quick to cook too!
Could i use boneless pork chops cut into bite size pieces instead of ground pork?
You can! Just keep in mind the cook time for chunks of pork versus ground pork will be different.
You can live on it
My family loves this recipe. We are wondering if this recipe is one that is in your cookbook?
I’m so glad you like it! No it’s not in my cookbook. 🙂
I made this and I loved it! I was wondering if I could make this in the crockpot? Would I cook all the ingredients for a few hours and then add in the orzo in the last 20 min? Thanks!
I would still follow steps 1 and 2 in the directions, then dump everything in your slow cooker. Cook for 1-2 hours on high or 3-4 hours on low. Stir in the orzo, cover and cook for 30-45 minutes on high until it’s tender.
Thank you!!
I love this recipe and have made it several times. I just have one thing I need clarified: when it calls for a stalk of celery, do you mean one “stick”, or the entire stalk?
We mean one rib of celery!
Thanks! Also, the orzo always seems to stick to the bottom of my Le Creuset Dutch oven unless I stir it constantly. Can it go in the oven once you add the orzo to prevent sticking?
I’m sure you can place it in the oven, not sure how long it would take to cook the orzo in the oven though without trying. Do let me know if you try it.
Made the one pot spicy pork ragu this morning. You can substitute the 1/4 cup of red wine with beef broth, if desired. I used red Mascota and it was delish. This makes a lot. Hubby and I had for lunch, put a container in the refrigerator for another meal with a tossed salad on the side. Plus put a container in the freezer for a later date. I’m passing this recipe on to friends. Healthy, delicious, but most of all…..COMFORT with a capital “C”.
Hi Jo, well I made this recipe. As I said I substituted the orzo for mini shell pasta and we felt that it needed to be a bit more spicy so I added half a teaspoon of chili powder. It was delicious! Will definitely make it again. In fact my boyfriend right away bought your cookbook for me for Christmas. Loving your website and your recipes.
Thank you Melissa! Glad you liked it!
Hi Jo, this recipe looks awesome and I am planning to make it tonight. Quick question though I don’t have any orzo so was thinking to just use some mini shell pasta. Do you think this would still work well? Thanks.
Yeah that will work just fine.
Your recipe calls for tomato juice. Would like to clarify if it’s indeed juice, as in the drink, versus sauce or other form.
Thank you!
Yes, that’s right. 🙂
My local grocery store rarely has ground pork. Could another meat be substituted?
Of course, ground beef or even chicken.
Jo – I made this recipe and it was fantastic. And I rarely do pasta dishes. I was so impressed that I immediately purchased your book on Amazon. I recently submitted a (great) review and posted a picture of the Moroccan chicken cous cous (which was delicious).
Your cookbook is fantastic and I am glad I bought it.
Thank you!
Thank you for commenting and for purchasing the cookbook. Hopefully you will try lots of recipes and have some fun with it.
This recipe looks delicious! I also love the Gilmore Girls. I’ve been recording it daily and watching 2 episodes every night this Summer 🙂 Nexflix is going to release four new Gilmore Girls 90 minute episodes beginning November I think. I am so excited and can’t wait to watch them.
Oh that’s great news, I can’t wait!