Slow cooked Beef Ragu

In the previous post, I detailed how to make fresh Pappardelle pasta - I served this with the slow-cooked Beef Ragu. Consider this a posh spag bol! Honestly, this is my fave!

Serves 4

You'll need:

• 2 tbsp of good quality olive oil
• 500g of good quality beef steak mince (or for a vegetarian option use 250g of diced chestnut mushrooms and 200g of Puy Lentils)
• 1 glass of red wine or glass of port.
• 4 cloves of garlic - minced
• 1 medium carrot - finely diced
• 1 medium brown onion- finely diced
• 2 stalks of celery - finely diced
• 2 Tsp Dried Oregano
• 500g of passata
• 1 tbsp of tomato puree
• 1 stalk of rosemary & a couple of bay leaves.
• Salt & Pepper
• Fresh Basil
• Large Saucepan with a lid
• Patience 

How I did it!:

• Once you have very finely diced your onion, carrots and celery, heat your pan and pour in a glug of good quality olive oil and slowly sweat down your veg mix. Don't be tempted to whack the heat up on this stage, the slower you sweat down the veg the more depth of flavour your ragu will have.
• I sweated mine down for approx 15-20 mins. 
• Once your veg has turned translucent and has a good level of caramelisation add your minced garlic and cook for another 5 minutes.
• Take your veg out of your pan and put it to one side. 
• Then in batches brown off your mince - making sure you do this in small batches so you get some good colour on your meat. If you overcrowd your pan your meat will sort of boil in its own juices which doesn't give the desired texture or flavour. (If you're doing the vegetarian option, brown off your chestnut mushrooms and add your lentils to your veg mix at this stage.)
• Once your meat has browned, add in the veg mix, Rosemary, Bay leaves & dried Oregano and crank up the heat. Pour in your wine or Port and simmer on medium heat for a few minutes or until 50% of the wine has evaporated. 
• Add a good squeeze of Tomato puree (approx 1 tbsp) and your Passata. 
• Turn the heat down to low heat and allow the Ragu to simmer for approx 45 mins -1hour. Stirring occasionally.
• Season generously or to your taste and stir in a good handful of freshly torn basil leaves before serving.  Serve with fresh Pappardelle pasta.

I hope you enjoy!

Char
xxx