In my freezer I have four bags of pork shoulder roast that you may recall from my post a couple of weeks ago.  In each bag are several slices and some braising liquid, but tonight I don’t want to shred the meat into a ragu.  Instead I’m going to dress some pasta simply with the braising liquid (reduced a bit and with some additional olive oil added to enrich it).

The roast itself will be the second course, heated up in the remaining braising liquid and served with a little sauteed broccoli di rapa on the side.   

The broccoli rapa are blanched, then sauteed with a handful of pine nuts and raisins–the sweet and nutty combination is perfect with the bitter greens.  Simply heat some olive oil in a large skillet and throw in the pine nuts for a minute until they just begin to turn golden (keep a close eye on them–they blacken in a moment).  Add some raisins and saute for about 20 seconds, until the raisins begin to plump and turn brown.  Toss in the blanched, drained broccoli and add salt and pepper.  This is a great side dish as a change of pace from garlic or lemon zest.