Description
A classic Italian Red Wine and Beef Ragu ideal for a weeknight dinner or a fancy dinner party! As an ultimate bonus: it’s super freezer friendly!
Ingredients
Scale
- 10 ounces fresh fettuccine recipe here
- 1 celery rib (cut in half)
- 1 carrot (cut in to large chunks)
- 1 medium onion (cut into quarters)
- 1 pound lean ground beef
- 1¼ cups dry red wine
- 28– ounce can crushed San Marizano tomatoes. If you can only find the whole ones (just puree them up in a blender.)
- 2 tbsp tomato paste
- 1/2 cup whole milk
- salt and freshly ground black pepper (to taste)
- Parmigiano Reggiano (to taste)
Instructions
- First you need to prep the veggies for the soffrito, which is the same as the French mirepoix. A mix of celery, onion and carrots. Because I prefer to do everything quickly, I just used the wet chop on my Vitamix and it was all chopped.
- I only cooked it for about 5 minutes until it was tender and translucent but did not have any color.
- Once that step was done I added in the ground beef and I pressed it down with a potato smasher until it was all broken up. (You can also use a wooden spoon but I find the smasher the best method) Season with salt and black pepper.
- Once it was all broken up and nicely browned we were ready for the vino.
- I poured in a nice deep red Italian wine I happened to have on hand and allowed this to simmer for another 30 minutes or until the wine had evaporated. (If you used a fattier meat, you can pour off the excess fat that has melted out of it prior to adding in the wine.)
- At this point add in your tomatoes and tomato paste and stir everything up to combine. Just let this cook for about 30 minutes nice and slowly. Go ahead and start your SALTED pot of water for the pasta.
- Turn off the heat and pour in your milk or cream.
- Give it a stir, taste for seasoning. If it is too acidic feel free to add in some sugar or honey to sweeten things up. Cook up your pasta, slather in sauce and serve up with plenty of freshly grated Parm and crushed black pepper.
Notes
Recipe adapted from Pinch and Swirl.
- Prep Time: 5 minutes
- Cook Time: 90 minutes
- Category: Pasta
- Cuisine: Italian