Beef Shin Ragu

It depends which day you ask me, but this could be my death row meal - its definitely in my top 3. For me, nothing beats this when I’m craving a rich, hearty, delicious bowl of comforting pasta. It’s all about the slow cooking of the beef shin here which after a few hours in a low oven just melts in your mouth. The end result is a ragu rich with red wine, plenty of rosemary, parmesan, garlic, sweet vegetables, sweet good quality Italian tinned tomatoes and well made beef stock.

(Serves 8 - £3.52 per portion)

1. Heat a large casserole dish over a high heat with 1 tbsp olive oil. Add the 1.5kg of diced beef shin in batches and season well, making sure they get a good brown caramelised colour on all sides before removing to a plate and browning the next batch.
2. Once all the meat is browned, turn the heat down to low/medium, leaving all the lovely caramelised meat residue in the bottom of the pan and add two chopped onions, 3 chopped carrots and 3 chopped celery sticks. Add 1 tsp salt and spend at least 15-20 minutes slowly softening the vegetables until golden (spending longer on this step ensures you extract all the sweetness from your veg, resulting in a more flavoursome ragu).
3. Next add a handful of finely chopped rosemary, 1 heaped tbsp tomato puree, and 4 crushed garlic cloves. Stir for a couple minutes before adding 250ml good quality red wine. Let the alcohol burn off before returning the meat and any resting juices to the pot along with 2 cans of good quality chopped tomatoes (I always use @muttipomodorouk ) and 400ml good quality beef stock.
4. Bring to a boil, then turn the heat down to a simmer, add a parmesan rind and a couple of bay leaves, put the lid on your pot and put it in the oven to slow cook at 140C fan/160C for as long as you can, at least 4 hours, stirring occasionally and removing the lid for the last 30 mins of cooking to allow the sauce to reduce a little.
5. For the pangrattato, add a couple handfuls of breadcrumbs to a frying pan with 1 tbsp olive oil over a medium heat. Add the zest of a lemon, some finely chopped parsley and a good grating of parmesan.
6. Once the breadcrumbs are nicely toasted, set aside until service.
7. When you are ready to serve, taste the ragu and season to taste. Cook your pappardelle and add your cooked pasta to the ragu, coating the pasta in the sauce.
8. Serve in bowls with plenty of extra grated parmesan and enjoy.