Meat Ragu Pasta

I just love a hearty plate of stew. A meat ragu is a mixture of meat and sausage cooked slowly with red wine and tomato sauce. A slow cooked stew means we need a little more time compared to those recipes shared here earlier. However, this can be prepared a night before if you are planning to have it for dinner the next day. Believe me, this is a definitely must try recipe.

This stew is absolutely amazing with served with pasta or just eaten on its own with some homemade bread.

Since we did not have any meat sausage in the fridge to break into our ragu, I am also going to share how we prepared our own sausage filling for the ragu.

Ingredients

Sausage Filling

3 slices of Bacon

100g of Minced Pork

2 Sage leaves

A small handful of Breadcrumbs

1/8 cup of Milk

Barbeque Powder

Salt and Pepper to taste

Meat Ragu

200g of Top Side Steak / Brisket

200g of Pork Ribs

1 whole Onion (diced)

1 bunch of Celery (diced)

2 Carrots (chopped)

2 cans of chopped Tomatoes

1 tablespoon of Tomato Paste

Olive Oil

3 cups of Red Wine

Salt and Black Pepper to taste

Parsley leaves (for garnish)

From start to finish

Sausage Filling

First, with a pestle and mortar, pound the sage leaves with some salt and pepper until it becomes a paste. At the same time, soak a small handful of stale bread crumbs with some milk until the breadcrumbs are entirely soaked with milk.

Next, place the minced pork and bacon into a food processor. Start the food processor to combine the mince and bacon together. Once well incorporated, remove from food processor.

Slowly add in the sage paste, the soaked breadcrumb, a couple of pinches of barbeque powder and some black pepper to the mixture and continue to mix them together. To test the flavour of the sausage filling, take a small teaspoon of the sausage filling mixture and cook them on a heated pan. Add more salt and pepper until the desired taste is achieved.

Meat Ragu

In a heated pot, add 2 tablespoon of olive oil. After that, put in the diced onion, followed by the diced carrots and the diced celery last. Lightly fry them on the pan just to release the flavours of the vegetables.

Once they are lightly browned, add in the pork ribs and finally the sausage fillings. Season the meat and vegetables with salt and pepper and mix them all in the pan. Then, add in the 2 cans of chopped tomatoes and 1 tablespoon of tomato paste. Stir them well and try to break the chopped tomatoes into the sauce. When the sauce starts to simmer, add the 3 cups of Red wine and season it again with salt and pepper.

Place the lid back on the pot and lower the heat to the pot. Allow it to cook for a good 2 hours (with regular checks in between) and your ragu will be ready.

Preparing the Pasta

Add some oil and salt into a boiling pot of water. Once the water is brought to a boil, add in your pasta. In this recipe, we used bowtie pasta ask we have some stocked in our kitchen. Cook them al dente and remove them from the boiling water with a strainer and soak the pasta in cold water to prevent them from overcooking.

Strain the pasta dry and place on a large plate. To serve, take2 generous ladles of ragu and serve them on the pasta, mix well and garnish the plate with some parsley if you wish.

There you have it guys, your very own meat ragu pasta. Simple and easy to prepare as most of the ingredients can be prepared ahead of time. Do try and have a go at it, tweet it and let me know what you think.