Yesterday, I talked about how you can save money on your meals and mentioned some of my favourite recipes. Today, I am going to share a couple that go really well together and will not only help you to make the most of cheaper cuts of meat but will also tell you how to use up your leftovers. A beef short rib ragu is surely one of the ultimate comfort foods.
Beef Short Ribs are my absolute favourite cut of beef. You might need to see a decent butcher to get these, but the trip is well worth it. Meltingly soft, intense beef flavour cooked low and slow and served with anything from a decadent mash potato to a sophisticated pasta. Have a look below at the recipe for short rib of beef ragu served with pasta, it’s proper comfort food.
This is my absolute go-to favourite Italian dish. So simple but rich and packed with flavour. Add some smoked pancetta when sealing the beef for a salty bacon background flavour. If you are batch cooking, stop at step 9 and refrigerate/freeze once cold.
I’ve included printable recipe cards so you can add these recipes to your collection.
Ingredients
1 KG Beef Short Ribs on the bone
50 ml Sunflower oil
1tbsp butter
1Tbsp Tomato puree
1 tin Chopped Tomatoes
1 Onion cut into 1 cm slices
2 cloves of garlic crushed.
300ml Red Wine
1-pint Beef stock
Pack of dried Spaghetti
Method
- Cut the sinew down the back of each bone to allow the meat to release easily once cooked.
- Seal the beef short ribs in a pan with the oil. Remove and put to one side
- Add the onion, garlic and butter to the pan and sweat until tender.
- Add the tomato puree and cook out for 5-7 minutes.
- Deglaze the pan with the wine using a wooden spoon to loosen the dark bits from the bottom of the pan. Reduce the wine by half.
- Add the tomatoes and stock and bring to the boil
- Once boiling, turn to a simmer and add the meat (plus juices) back to the pan. Stir thoroughly and make sure the beef is submerged in the liquid.
- Put in oven at 150 degrees for a minimum of 3 hours. The longer the better.
- Remove from oven and break up meat using a fork or tongs. Remove bones and discard.
- Cook pasta according to packet instructions
- Drain pasta and return to pan.
- Add sauce to pasta as required. Mix and serve immediately with parmesan cheese or Pangrattato (see below).
Beef Short Rib Ragu
Ingredients
- 1 kg Beef short ribs on the bone
- 50 ml Sunflower oil
- 1 tbsp Butter
- 1 tbsp Tomato puree
- 1 tin Chopped tomatoes
- 1 whole Onion cut into 1cm slices
- 2 cloves Garlic (crushed)
- 300 ml Red wine
- 1 pint Beef stock
- 1 pack Dried spaghetti
Instructions
- Cut the sinew down the back of each bone to allow the meat to release easily once cooked.
- Seal the beef short ribs in a pan with the oil. Remove and put to one side.
- Add the onion, garlic and butter to the pan and sweat until tender.
- Add the tomato puree and cook out for 5-7minutes.
- Deglaze the pan with the wine using a wooden spoon to loosen the dark bits from the bottom of the pan. Reduce the wine by half.
- Add the tomatoes and stock and bring to a boil.
- Once boiling turn to a simmer and add the meat (plus juices) back to the pan. Stir thoroughly and make sure the beef is submerged in the liquid.
- Put in oven at 150 degrees for a minimum of 3hours. The longer the better.
- Remove from oven and break up meat using a fork or tongs. Remove bones and discard.
- Cook pasta according to packet instructions.
- Drain pasta and return to pan.
- Add sauce to pasta as required. Mix and serve immediately with parmesan cheese or Pangrattato.
Pangrattato
As an alternative to garlic bread and as a fantastic way to use up leftovers, whip up a batch of Pangrattato to sprinkle over the top of your ragu.
A crispy and fragrant topping for pasta dishes and a zingy, fresh alternative to parmesan. So simple but worth it. You will notice that there are no measurements for this one. Do it by taste and add as much or as little as you want.
Ingredients
Leftover bread blitzed into breadcrumbs
Fresh lemon rind
Garlic
Butter
Method
- Melt the butter in a frying pan and add the breadcrumbs.
- Fry until golden and crispy
- Use a micro plane grater to grate garlic and lemon rind into breadcrumbs.
- Mix thoroughly
- Serve over pasta (great with the short rib ragu above).
Pangrattato
Ingredients
- Leftover bread blitzed into breadcrumbs.
- Fresh lemon rind
- Garlic
- Butter
Instructions
- Melt the butter in a frying pan and add the breadcrumbs.
- Fry until golden and crispy.
- Use a micro-plane grater to grate garlic and lemon rind into breadcrumbs.
- Mix thoroughly.
- Serve over pasta.
*Disclosure: I only recommend products I would use myself and all opinions expressed here are my own. This page may contain affiliate links that mean I may earn a small commission at no additional cost to you. Read the full privacy policy here.
It looks and sounds delicious.
It really was, writing it was difficult because my mouth kept watering!
This sounds good now I am just wondering how I can veganise it for me to eat lol