SLOW COOKED BEEF RAGU RIGATONI

You’re all huddled up and cosy and then you realize your stomach is growling. Nothing welcomes in a cold summers night more than the craving for a rich, decadent slow-cooked meat meal for dinner. Top that off with some delicious pasta with some cheese and red wine and you’ve got me singing all night long!

Imagine you have a dinner party where you want to wow your guests with your cooking skills, you want to whip up something delicious and warming, simple yet fancy, and perfect for the cold outside? Enter my recipe for Slow Cooked Beef Ragu with Rigatoni!In order for you to serve this Slow Cooked Beef Ragu with Rigatoni for four, you will need:

a bit of flour,
1 onion, chopped
2 cloves of garlic, chopped
3 sticks of celery, cut into rough bite size pieces
3 carrots, peeled and cut into the same size as the celery sticks pieces.
500g beef chunks cut into cubes
2 cans of peeled tomatos
2 table spoons of olive oil
1 cup of beef stock / 1 square of beef buillon.
1/4 cup of water
1/2 cup of wine (if you prefer not to add alcohol, just replace with water).
a teaspoon of italian spices
400g of Rigatoni pasta
1/2 cup of grated paremsan.

Since this recipe is slow-cooked, make sure to calculate a good three and a half hours for this, but it is so worth it!

Plus it only requires that much cooking time. All together, you won’t spend more than an hour on this, promise!So, lets head to the steps, shall we?

Start off by preheating your oven to 180°C and let that baby warm up your heart!

Open the bottle of wine and pour yourself a glass (but only one!) and put on some Christmas music.
Pour some flour onto a flat plate and season the flour with a bit of salt and pepper.
Take your beef chunks and cover all sides of the beef in the flour and put on a separate plate.Now that your beef is ready to go, place a ovenproof saucepan onto your stove and add one tablespoon of olive oil. Let the oil heat up nicely, but not to the point where it is smoking. Once the oil is nice and hot, brown the beef on all sides, around 8 minutes. Then, transfer the beef to a plate to rest.

Lower your heat to a medium-high. You may notice some brown burnty parts in your pan, make sure you do not clean or remove them away! Those bits and pieces are full of flavor! Add in your remaining oil, add the chopped onion and garlic and cook for about 2 minutes, stirring occasionally.

Then, add the chopped celery and carrots and cook for another 5 minutes until the vegetables are starting to brown.

Pour in your 2 cans of tomatoes, water, red wine, beef stock and cook everything for about 4 minutes. Stir everything with a wooden spoon and try to really scrape the bottom of the pan, getting those brown burnt bits to release into the sauce.

Yum!Return your cooked beef and all the juices on the plate to the pan. Add some of the italian spices and bring the pan to a boil and then cover with the lid.

Transfer the pan to the oven and cook at 180°C for 2 – 3 hours, or until meat is very tender and falling apart and the sauce has reduced and thickened.