Pork stew with paprika

This northern Italian version of goulash is easy and delicious and gave us several good meals. I used pork shoulder (Boston butt) to cut into stewing chunks, rather than the "pork steaks" called for by Anna Del Conte. Also, tomato passato is apparently something you can find in Europe but not here, so I used crushed tomato. In any case, the stew was meaty with a rich tomato sauce.

My pork weighed in at somewhat more than her 1-3/4 lbs so I increased the other ingredients proportionately. I had no luck finding smoked pancetta so I used guanciala, which is probably a little fattier. The recipe calls for 4 oz., which is cut into cubes and sauteed in 2 Tbl. butter for 5 min. Then you add 8 oz. sliced onion and cook for 20 min. Then mix in the pork and brown for 10 min. before sprinkling in 1 Tbl. paprika (I always use sweet unless the recipe specifies hot) and 1 Tbl. flour. Cook for another minute then add 7 oz. wine and bring to a boil and cook for a couple of minutes before adding 10 oz. of the crushed tomato, a dozen fresh sage leaves snipped into pieces and 2 bay leaves. Cook for 1-1/2 to 2 hrs. Del Conte recommends serving with polenta, but we accompanied with creamed purree of cauliflower.