April – Pork Shoulder in Red Sauce and Slow Roasted Sweet Potatoes

April – Pork Shoulder in Red Sauce and Slow Roasted Sweet Potatoes

A couple of weeks ago I made ‘Forever Roasted Pork Shoulder’, it was a big success in our house and gave us wonderful leftovers. Then I saw Chef Mimi’s post for ‘Pork All’Arrabbiata’ and knew I needed to try it if I could score another pork shoulder at the store. I loved the idea of slow cooking the pork in a spicy red sauce. This was also the perfect opportunity to clean out the pantry and/or fridge.

I found a jar of “just outdated” (really those dates are very conservative and it was only a few months past expiration…it looked fine) red pepper marinara sauce in the pantry, the end of a jar of bourbon and bacon BBQ sauce (about 1/4 cup), and a small can of spicy V8 juice. There wasn’t any leftover red wine (we drank it all) to add, so I also cleaned out the jars with a little water.

I decided to cook it slowly at a low temperature, covered this time. As in ‘Forever Roasted Pork Shoulder’ that meant 5 hours at 275 degrees F. While the oven was on at the low temperature, I could also roast some sweet potatoes. I ran across this method on the blog Smitten Kitchen for slow-roasted sweet potatoes. 2 1/2 hours at a low temperature, then broiled until charred on top results in a creamy skinned potato quite unlike the usual stringy-ness (although I will eat a sweet potato no matter how it’s cooked).

Slow-Roasted Sweet Potatoes

Slow-Roasted Sweet Potatoes

I think they will be delicious with the pork and hey, the oven is already on.

Here are a few pictures of the final result, we had lots of leftovers for pulled pork quesadillas (no pictures) and sandwiches.

Pulled Pork with Red Sauce

Pulled Pork with Red Sauce and Slow Roasted Sweet Potatoes