Campari & Orange Sticky Ribs
Definitely Looks Better in the Book
Time: 3 Hours 30 Minutes
Ingredient Availability: 4/5
Difficulty: 2/5
Ribs certainly aren’t high on the list of foods you think of when Italian’s on the menu. However, I couldn’t help but be intrigued by this recipe from the Italian American Cookbook. It sort of reminds me of those ribs slathered with a Jack Daniels sauce, but with Campari instead of Jack. The real question is if Campari and orange works just as well as Jack Daniels. Let’s find out.
Key Ingredients & Omissions:
The recipe says to use two racks of baby back ribs, or 3-4 lbs. I wasn’t able to find such small racks at my grocery store, so I just got two of the smaller ones. Also, this recipe relies heavily on Campari, which you probably won’t be able to find at your general purpose grocery store. You’ll need to go to a liquor store to find that. Other than that, the rest of the ingredients are easy to find and readily available. The red food dye was optional, so I didn’t use it.
Tools:
Bowls
Rasp Style Grater
Cooking Review:
Prep & Rub Ribs: 30 minutes
The recipe says to run your ribs under cool water and pat them dry, which I did, but you really don’t need to do this. It just makes a larger mess for you to clean up. You should just remove them from the packaging and pat them dry. Next, I removed the membrane from the underside of each rack. You can get it started by using your finger to separate it from the meat then use a paper towel to pull the rest off. Next, I grated the garlic and zested the orange and mixed them in a bowl along with the ground ginger, olive oil, pepper and salt. Finally, I rubbed that mixture over the ribs. I barely had enough to cover the ribs, so if you can find smaller racks, you’d probably be better off.
Bake and Make Sauce: 2 hours 20 minutes
I wrapped the ribs in aluminum foil and put them in the oven to bake for 2 hours. After 2 hours, I used a paring knife to see how easily the tip cut into the meat and decided to let it go for another 20 minutes to get a little more tender. While the ribs were baking, I prepared for. and made the sauce. I chopped the garlic and ginger and squeezed the orange to get as much juice as possible, supplementing it with some bottled orange juice. The vegetable oil was heated in a large pot and the garlic, ginger, and salt were added to cook until the garlic was just beginning to turn golden. The rest of the ingredients for the sauce besides the lemon juice and food coloring were added to the pot, mixed, and brought to a boil. The boil was then reduced to a simmer and stirred frequently over a period of about an hour and 5 minutes. At that point, the sauce had reduced significantly and was thick enough to coat the back of a spoon. Finally, I stirred in the lemon juice.
Cool & Sauce Ribs: 45 minutes
I let the ribs cool for about 30 minutes then cut them into individual pieces/bones. I put them into a bowl then poured the sauce over the ribs, tossing to coat. The sauce didn’t seem quite as thick as what the picture in the book looked like, but it could just be that their sauce looked redder from the food coloring.
Analysis:
Although these certainly are a different take on ribs, I think it’s a miss. Yes, the ribs are tender, but that’s about as far as the good goes. The sauce is sweet, which isn’t necessarily a bad thing, but it’s also bitter from the Campari. The bitterness isn’t strong, but it is noticeable and not a nice or pleasant bitterness. The flavor from the rub is nearly completely masked by the sauce, which really doesn’t have all that much flavor aside from the sweetness and bitterness. I tried a piece of the rib before saucing them and I was actually impressed by the flavor. Without sauce, the piece I had was well seasoned and had a hint of orange flavor. A lot go that was lost with the sauce. I was able to taste a little of the orange here and there. I was really disappointed by this recipe, especially since this cookbook typically delivers really good food. I’m going to give this recipe a 5/10. It’s not inedible, but it’s not worth the time and effort. Not to mention the alcohol that goes into it. If you buy a rub and sauce from the store, you’ll probably like that more than this.
