Out-of-the-Ordinary Meat Sauce for Pasta?

[Layla Miller]

I suppose I'm not looking for recipes, specifically, but DH and I are planning to do a basic pasta-and-sauce dinner next week (trying to use up pantry stuff, and we have both in large quantities!).  We thought it would be nice, though, to try something a little different with it.  In particular, we'd like to try a different kind of meat than our usual ground beef.

We've made meatballs before, and I've found recipes that use ground pork sausage and ground Italian sausage, but I'm trying to come up with something a little more unusual.  We tossed around the idea of chopping up some andouille sausage or something similar, but I've been poking around online for other ideas and just can't find anything.

So, e-hellions, do you have any suggestions for a non-ground-meat meat that would go well in a pasta sauce?  The only restriction I can think of is that DH has both mushroom and seafood intolerances, so we wouldn't be able to do that.  (If you have yummy sauces that use either of those, though, feel free to post--other e-hellions may still benefit!)

[NyaChan]

Andouille or chorizo should be good.  I've also used shredded beef/chicken before.  You said you don't want a ground meat, but have you tried ground lamb meatballs?  A proper ragu would be good too & you can use game meat to make it interesting - I've had it with venison & quite enjoyed it.

[Aggiesque]

venison is good, but I suppose that is ground :/

[CakeBeret]

You could make Cajun pasta with chicken, shrimp, and/or spicy sausage, veggies, and a spicy Cajun cream sauce

[Layla Miller]

Oooh, these are all good!  I'll talk them over with DH and see what sounds good to him, too.  I will definitely look into other ground meats, too--if they'd be different enough to make the meal interesting, I'm definitely up for trying them!

See, this is why I love e-hell so much.  Two hours later and I've already got more ideas than a morning of scouring recipes sites ever yielded me!

[doodlemor]

My favorite sauce starts out with boneless pork cut up, and Italian sausage.  This is browned, and then the tomatoes and paste are added. 

After this is cooked awhile meatballs are added, and then the mixture is cooked some more.  Some versions of this sauce also call for red wine replacing some of the water added with the tomato paste.

If you think that you would be interested in this hearty sauce, despite the meatballs, I'll post it.

[Nibsey]

Can you get wild boar meat. I've being wanting to try Jamie Olivers recipe for Wild boar pasta. It's called Sugo do Cinghiale di Mercatello.

[POF]

Country Style Boneless Spare ribs ( pork ). Brown them in olive oil, add onion, garlic tomato paste and some red wine. Throw the pork back in add some ground tomatoes and let it cook for a while.

[lady_disdain]

I love to use pulled meat, pork or beef, in a pasta sauce. I just cook the meat in some sauce for several hours in a low oven or a crockpot, then pull it with a fork. The sauce becomes extra rich from the drippings and the meat is more interesting than ground beef. You can also throw in some diced carrots, onions, leeks, red peppers and other veggies in the sauce before cooking, which adds a lot of taste and extra nutrition.