Macaroni with slow cooked ragu, by Massimo mele
- Cook time: 3hours45mins
- Serves: 6
- Difficulty: Medium
Ingredients
- 1 tablespoon olive oil
- 250g diced pork belly
- 2 tablespoons chopped pancetta
- 750g beef shin diced
- 2 teaspoons salt
- 1/2 cup diced celery
- 1/2 cup diced carrot
- 1 tablespoon tomato paste
- 1 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
- 1 bay leaf
- 2/3 cup white wine
- 2 tablespoons freshly chopped parsley
- 1 tablespoon chopped fresh marjoram
- 1.5kg onions chopped mixture red and brown onion
- 500g good quality dry pasta
Method
- Pre heat oven to 150° Celsius
- Heat oil in a large pot over medium heat. Cook pancetta until most of the fat is rendered out, about 6 minutes. Remove cooked pancetta with a slotted spoon and set aside.
- Raise heat to high and transfer the meat to the pot. Season with salt. Cook and stir until the liquid releases from the beef and begins to evaporate, and meat browns, 10 to 15 minutes
- Reduce heat to medium-high. Add onions, celery, carrots, reserved cooked pancetta, salt and pepper. Cook and stir about 5 minutes. Add a heaped tablespoon of tomato paste, bay leaf, and white wine. Cook and stir, scraping up browned ingredients from the bottom of the pan, 2 to 3 minutes.
- Place lid on and cook for 2 hours in pre heated oven.
- Check every 30 minutes. If sauce seems to reduce too much, add water or broth as needed to maintain a sauce-like consistency. Cook until beef and onions seem to melt into each other.
- Bring a large pot of lightly salted water to a boil. Cook rigatoni in the boiling water, stirring occasionally until just barely al dente, 10 to 12 minutes. Drain.
- Add rigatoni to the sauce and cook until heated through, you may need a little pasta water to finish cooking the pasta.
- Serve topped with a pinch of marjoram and freshly grated Parmigiano-Reggiano cheese.
