When winter hits and the temperature drops there is nothing better than a beef ragu with red wine and pasta. We use a 1 kg oyster blade roast cut in 6-8 large pieces. You can prep you vegetable while the beef is cooking or if you have fussy eaters who don’t like seeing their vegetable you can always use a food processor to cut the onion, carrot and celery into small pieced that are easily hidden in the sauce.
You need at least three hours to be able to prep and cook the beef ragu prior to serving. The sauce needs two hours to cook while stirring occasionally so you can always pop it on and go about your afternoon until the meat is ready to shred.
Serve with pappardelle or rigatoni, parmesan cheese and parsley. The recipe makes six generous serves.
ingredients
1kg oyster blade roast – cut in 6-8 pieces
1 medium onion diced
2 medium carrots diced
3 sticks celery diced
3 cloves garlic
2 Tablespoon oil
2 Tablespoons tomato paste
700ml passata sauce
400ml red wine
500ml beef stock
1 teaspoon Italian herbs
3 bay leaves
directions
1. Cut roast into pieces and season with salt. Heat half the oil in sauté pan and seal the beef. You want to have each side down for about 2 minutes so the whole process should take about 10 minutes.
2. Remove the meat, clean out the hot pan with paper towel, heat the remaining oil and add onion to cook until transparent which should take about 5 minutes.
3. Add garlic to cook for one minute.
4. Add celery and carrot cooking for about 5 minutes until soft.
5. Add passata, tomato paste, red wine, stock and herbs. Bring to the boil and add the seared beef back to the pan.
6. Pop on the lid and reduce to a simmer, cooking for 2 hours while stirring occasionally. For the last 30 minutes remove the lid.
7. Use a fork to shred the beef and serve with cooked pasta, parmesan cheese and parsley. Don’t forget to remove the bay leaves prior to serving.
utensils
You will need a board, knife, garlic press (optional), dish for seasoning beef, sauté pan and lid, wooden spoon, measuring jug, measuring spoon and serving spoon.
Have a look at our other messy benches pasta recipes for more dinner ideas.
