Beef Ragu with Spaghetti
- 3 or 4 medium onions
- 3 medium carrots
- 3 or 4 sticks celery
- 1 kg minced beef
- 1 large glass dry vermouth
- a couple sprigs fresh rosemary
- 1-2 tsp dried sage
- 2 big cloves garlic
- 2 tins plum tomatoes
- half litre beef stock (or a little more)
- First make the soffritto, finely chop the onion, carrot and celery and sweat it down gently in a large pan with plenty of olive oil, put the lid on, and stir every so often, for about 15 to 20 minutes.
- You want everything to be soft, sweet and golden, but not browned.
- While the vegetables are cooking fry the bacon until the fat is rendered, then remove from the frying pan and add the minced beef.
- Fry this until browned and any meat juices released have bubbled away.
- When the vegetables are cooked, add the garlic, fresh rosemary and stir until the aromas are released, then pour the vermouth in to the pan.
- This has to be plain dry vermouth, you can use white wine instead, as Antonio suggests, but vermouth keeps longer, is cheaper and does the same job.
- Tip the meat into the pan too and deglaze the frying pan with a little more vermouth.
- Add that to the pan together with the dried sage, tinned tomatoes and the stock.
- Cut the tomatoes up roughly.
- Add lots of black pepper, and some white pepper too if you have some.
- Add a little more stock if you need to, you should have quite a loose soupy mixture so there's lots of liquid to cook away.
- Put the lid on and simmer on a low heat, stirring every now and then, for about 1 and a half to 2 hours.
- Taste, and add more salt and pepper if you need to.
- Keep cooking until most of the liquid has been absorbed.
- When you're ready to eat, cook the spaghetti, drain and toss in melted butter, salt, pepper and a little Parmesan cheese.
- Then add to the ragu some grated lemon zest, the crushed garlic and finely chopped rosemary.
- This is a tip from Jamie Oliver, it adds a lovely zingy finish to the beef.
- Serve the ragu on top of a pile of spaghetti, with some grated Parmesan.
onions, carrots, celery, beef, glass, couple, sage, garlic, tomatoes, beef stock
Taken from cookpad.com/us/recipes/296425-beef-ragu-with-spaghetti (may not work)