Three years and two houses ago, we hosted our friends for a dinner party featuring a slow simmered Braised Beef Ragu and homemade pasta. We had just returned from our honeymoon in Italy and were brimming with new recipes to make. This “meat sauce” has become a staple in our house – we make it about once every two weeks. My recipe from three years ago is very basic – and easy, and delicious, but through the years I’ve made some tweaks and changes that I’ve grown to love even more. Of course, easy and simple is always good, but this is the kind of recipe you should make when you want to relish your time in the kitchen – like on these cold, dreary winter days. I make this version with stew meat – much leaner than a chuck roast (per the original), but still gets very tender and falls apart (a good thing…) after it has been slow simmered. Also, instead of the wide pappardelle pasta, we opted for homemade tagliatelle – sort of a very thin fettucine pasta. However, any shape of dried pasta works really well with this – penne, cavatappi, ochiette, spaghetti, etc.
Slow Simmered Beef Ragu
1/4 cup of olive oil
1 yellow onion, chopped
2 pounds of stew meat
1 – 28 ounce can of whole peeled San Marzano tomatoes
1 sprig of rosemary
1 tablespoon of sea salt
1/4 teaspoon of red pepper flakes
…
1/4 cup of fresh grated parmesan cheese
1/4 cup of fresh basil leaves (about 6 large leaves)
pasta (homemade or dried)
parmesan cheese for servin
Season the beef with salt. Then in a large pot or dutch oven heat the olive oil. Sear the beef for a couple of minutes until it begins to brown. Add onions, rosemary, canned tomatoes, and red pepper flakes. Cover and put in the oven for 4-6 hours.
Cook pasta in salted, boiling water 2 minutes short of instructed cooking time – for fresh pasta that equals about 30 seconds, for dry pasta about 6-8 minutes, depending on the shape. Strain it, then put it directly into the pasta sauce, tossing to coat.
Add parmesan and fresh basil.
Serve with extra parmesan on top.