Wild Boar

One of my favorite diners in Italy was a Wild Boar Pappardelle.  This was served with fantastic Chianti and made for a fabulous meal!  I have been trying to figure out how to recreate this ever since.  My daughter even went so far as to give me a pasta machine for my birthday so that I could make the Pappardelle pasta.  I was thus only missing the key ingredient … wild boar.  You would think that finding a boar in the DC area would not be that difficult but for some counterintuitive reason it seemed to be.

Imagine my excitement when we found a Wild Boar shoulder at Wegman’s this weekend!  I could finally recreate my vision of culinary nirvana.  After a search on the internet I found a recipe by Anne Burrell.  The fact that it included unsweetened cocoa powder only served to convince me that this was the recipe I should attempt.  After three hours of cooking, it turned out very well if I do say so myself.  The boar was very tender and the sauce was thick and rich.  The only improvement I could make would be to add fresh ground nutmeg early in the cooking to give the dish a little more depth.  I even had some success with the pasta.  I have to admit that it was not as good as that memorable meal in Italy but it was never-the-less delicious and worth a repeat performance.

The dinner was paired with what has become our house wine  and a wine I have talked about before.  d’Arc from Tre Donne is a delicious wine we discovered at a local wine shop in Fredericksburg.  It is a blend of varietals from the Piedmont region of Italy and is smooth and intense and paired well with both the boar and the chocolate.