Beef Ragu

The star of this dish is the beef. Three different cuts of beef each lend something special here: beef cheek for melt-in-your-mouth tenderness, short rib for richness and flavour, and osso buco for texture.

Ingredients

1 tbsp olive oil

1 kg beef osso buco

500 g beef cheeks

500 g beef short rib

100 g pancetta, diced

1 onion, diced

2 carrots, roughly chopped

3 celery sticks, roughly chopped

6 cloves garlic, crushed

120 g tomato paste

3 x 400g tins diced tomatoes

700 g passata

½ cup white wine

1 beef stock cube

¼ cup dried mixed Italian herbs

1 tsp pepper

120 g spinach, chopped (optional)

⅓ cup cream or milk (optional)

cooked pasta, such as pappardelle, to serve

Ingredients

1 tbsp olive oil

2 lbs beef osso buco

1 lb beef cheeks

1 lb beef short rib

3 oz pancetta, diced

1 onion, diced

2 carrots, roughly chopped

3 celery sticks, roughly chopped

6 cloves garlic, crushed

4 oz tomato paste

3 x 14 oz tins diced tomatoes

25 oz passata

½ cup white wine

1 beef stock cube

¼ cup dried mixed Italian herbs

1 tsp pepper

4 oz spinach, chopped (optional)

⅓ cup cream or milk (optional)

cooked pasta, such as pappardelle, to serve

Ingredients note

I highly recommend sticking to the combination of osso buco, beef cheek and short rib as closely as you can. After much experimentation, this combo has proven to be the ultimate winner! Short rib is too fatty on its own, and beef cheek is too soft. If you can only use one cut of beef, osso buco is the way to go. The quantities are also flexible – I’ve made this before with over 2.5 kg / 5 lbs beef, depending on what’s available.
Diced pancetta adds a savouriness which, believe it or not, you can taste the difference when it’s not there. The ragu will still be delicious without it though, if you don’t have any on hand or don’t eat pork.
Yes, white wine, not red! Traditional Italian recipes use white wine or no wine. I’ve tried with red wine, and I don’t think it adds as much flavour. You can also use a port or tawny if you have one open. Or, omit the wine altogether.
Spinach is a way to sneak in more veggies and to thicken the sauce; sometimes I also add chopped mushrooms at the start with the rest of the vegetables.
Cream or milk rounds out the acidity of the tomatoes. It’s actually a traditional ingredient in some parts of Italy – don’t knock it till you’ve tried it! It’s added right at the end so you can taste the before and after result, and you can also add a little bit at a time if you’re still skeptical.
Do not add salt right until the end; some of the ingredients, like the pancetta, are already salty so you might find that you don’t need any extra.
If you have fresh herbs on hand, grab a few sprigs each of varieties such as basil, oregano, marjoram, thyme, rosemary and sage, tie them together with cooking twine and add them before slow cooking. Remove and discard the ‘bouquet garni’ when you remove the meat.

Variations

Serve over cooked pasta of your choice – pappardelle is my preference.

One of the reasons I make such a big batch of this ragu is to use (about half) in lasagne. Using ragu instead of bolognese gives it a much meatier, richer flavour.

Directions

Prepare the ingredients

1. This recipe is easy to follow if you have everything prepared before you start:

Dice the pancetta into small cubes or strips.
Roughly chop or dice the onion, carrot and celery.
Mince the garlic.
Roughly chop the spinach.

Tip: Prepare these ingredients the day before and store covered in the fridge overnight, so the next morning you just need to get the slow cooker on and then let it take care of the rest!

Put the slow cooker on

Note: If your slow cooker has a sear/saute setting, cook the vegetables directly in the slow cooker. Otherwise you’ll need to cook them on the stove top, and then transfer them to the slow cooker.

1. Turn your slow cooker on to the saute setting, add the oil and then the pancetta and cook until it’s just beginning to crisp (about 3 minutes).

2. Add the onions, carrots, celery and garlic and cook, stirring occasionally, until they’re softened (about 5 minutes).

3. Add the white wine and cook until it’s mostly reduced (this will only take a minute or two).

Note: If you cooked the vegetables on the stove top, transfer them to the slow cooker now.

4. Add all of the tomatoes (tomato paste, diced tomatoes and passata) to the slow cooker. Rinse the cans and jars with about 1/2 cup of water, and add this to the slow cooker too along with the crumbled beef stock cube, herbs and pepper.

5. Submerge the beef in the sauce, and set the slow cooker on to low for 8 hours (or longer, if you have the time).

Shred the beef

1. When the slow cooker is done, remove the beef pieces with tongs and a slotted spoon (the beef will most like be so tender that it falls apart if you’re just using tongs).

2. Place the beef onto a large chopping board and use two forks to shred it into smaller pieces. Discard the bones from the osso buco.

Tip: Take care to search through the sauce with the slotted spoon for any bones that may have come away during cooking.

3. Re-add the shredded beef to the sauce, along with the spinach and cream. Taste, and adjust salt and pepper as needed.

Note: The sauce shouldn’t need reducing – the spinach will soak up some of the liquid, and the sauce will thicken on standing.

4. Serve the ragu over pasta. This makes a big batch, and it freezes perfectly for a few months. I always save about half to make lasagne.

Wine pairing

Go for a deep, red wine that can stand up to the richness and savouriness of the ragu. Shiraz, Cabernet Sauvignon or Cabernet blends or Italian varieties such as Sangiovese or Nebbiolo will hold up.