Slow-cooked Beef Ragu

Method

How it goes together

1. 01

   Step 1

   Heat the oil – Heat the olive oil in a deep heavy-based pan with a lid over medium–high heat.

2. 02

   Step 2

   Fry the base veggies – Add the onion, carrot, celery and garlic. Cook, stirring, for 3–5 minutes until softened.

   The onion, carrot, celery and garlic are the sweet, savoury backbone of the sauce; softening them in fat first draws out their moisture and sugars so the finished ragu tastes rounded rather than raw and sharp.

3. 03

   Step 3

   Brown the beef – Turn the heat to high, add the beef chuck steak and cook, stirring, for 2–3 minutes until the meat is sealed all over.

   High heat browns the outside of the beef, and those browned surfaces are where most of the deep, meaty flavour in the finished sauce comes from.

4. 04

   Step 4

   Add the remaining sauce ingredients – Add the red wine, tomato paste, passata, beef stock, salt, pepper, thyme and bay leaves. Stir to combine and bring to a gentle simmer.

   The wine and stock lift the browned residue off the base of the pan into the sauce, and getting it to a gentle simmer before you cover it means the long cook starts at the right temperature.

5. 05

   Step 5

   Cook – Cover, reduce the heat to the lowest setting, and cook for 2½ hours or until the beef is tender enough to be easily shredded with two forks (see note 1).

   Long, low, covered cooking is what melts the connective tissue in chuck steak into gelatine, which both makes the meat shreddable and gives the sauce its glossy body.

6. 06

   Step 6

   Shred the meat and serve – Shred the beef with two forks and serve with your favourite pasta and some grated parmesan.

   Shredding spreads the meat through the sauce so it clings to the pasta instead of sitting in lumps beside it.