Slow-Braised Short Rib Ragu with Red Wine and Porcini · Excerpt: The rich, fall-apart beef ragu I made by the tray-load in the restaurant, scaled down for a Sunday at home.
At work I’d braise 12 kilos of short rib at a time for this ragu, and the whole kitchen would smell like red wine and rosemary for hours. It was one of the most popular things on the menu, and it’s honestly one of the easiest dishes to make at home. You brown the meat, build a sauce, put it in the oven for three hours and walk away.
Short rib is perfect for this because the meat, fat and bone all melt together into a sauce that coats the pasta properly. The dried porcini add a deep, savoury, almost meaty flavour you can’t quite put your finger on.
My twist: I throw a parmesan rind into the braise for extra depth, and finish each bowl with a quick lemon and parsley gremolata to wake everything up.
Serves: 6 · Prep: 30 minutes · Cook: about 4 hours
Ingredients
- 1.5 kg beef short ribs, bone in
- 20 g dried porcini mushrooms
- 2 tbsp olive oil
- 1 brown onion, 1 carrot and 1 celery stalk, finely diced
- 4 garlic cloves, crushed
- 2 tbsp tomato paste
- 250 ml (1 cup) red wine (something you’d drink, like a Shiraz or Sangiovese)
- 500 ml (2 cups) beef stock
- 400 g tin crushed tomatoes
- 2 sprigs rosemary, 4 sprigs thyme and 2 bay leaves, tied together with string
- 1 parmesan rind (optional)
- Sea salt and black pepper
- 500 g pappardelle or rigatoni, and grated parmesan, to serve
For the gremolata
- Zest of 1 lemon
- A small handful of flat-leaf parsley, finely chopped
- 1 small garlic clove, very finely chopped
Method
- Soak the porcini. Cover the porcini with 250 ml of boiling water and leave for 20 minutes. Lift them out, chop them roughly and keep the soaking liquid. Leave the gritty last bit in the bottom of the bowl.
- Brown the ribs. Heat the oven to 160°C (140°C fan-forced). Season the ribs well. Heat the oil in a large flameproof casserole over medium-high heat and brown the ribs on all sides in batches, about 8 minutes per batch. Don’t rush this, because the colour is flavour. Set them aside.
- Build the sauce. Turn the heat down to medium. Add the onion, carrot and celery to the pot and cook for 10 minutes until soft. Stir in the garlic, then the tomato paste, and cook for 1 minute until it smells sweet and toasty.
- Add the wine. Pour in the wine and let it bubble until it has reduced by about a third, scraping up everything stuck to the bottom of the pot.
- Braise. Add the stock, tomatoes, porcini, porcini liquid, herb bundle and parmesan rind. Bring it to the boil. Nestle the ribs back in, meat side down, so they’re mostly covered. Put the lid on (or cover tightly with foil) and braise in the oven for 3 hours, until the meat falls off the bone.
- Shred. Lift the ribs out and let them cool a little. Pull out the bones and any chewy bits of tendon, then shred the meat with two forks.
- Finish the sauce. Skim off as much fat as you can and fish out the herbs and parmesan rind. Simmer the sauce on the stove for 10–15 minutes until it’s thick enough to coat a spoon, crushing the vegetables with your spoon as you go. Stir the meat back in and season with salt and pepper.
- Serve. Mix the gremolata ingredients together. Cook the pasta until al dente, then toss it through the ragu with a splash of pasta water. Serve with parmesan and a sprinkle of gremolata.
Tips
- Like most braises, it’s even better the next day. Making it a day ahead also makes the fat easy to lift off once it’s cold.
- It freezes really well for up to 3 months.
- No time for pasta? Spoon it over soft polenta or creamy mash.
