Beef Shin Ragù

Three hours in a low oven turns the cheapest cut on the counter into a sauce that coats pasta properly.

This is the recipe I make when I want the week to be easier. It takes twenty minutes of attention at the start, twenty at the end, and three hours in between where the oven does the work.

The only step worth being fussy about is the browning. Pale beef makes a pale ragù, and no amount of simmering recovers it.

Prep

20 min

Cook

3 hr 15 min

Total

3 hr 35 min

Makes

4 servings

Difficulty

Easy

Cuisine

Italian

Ingredients

The braise

• 1.2 kg beef shin, on the bone, cut into thick slices
• 2 tbsp olive oil
• 2 onions, finely diced
• 2 carrots, finely diced
• 2 celery sticks, finely diced
• 4 garlic cloves, sliced
• 2 tbsp tomato purée
• 250 ml red wine
• 800 g canned whole tomatoes, crushed by hand
• 2 bay leaves

To finish

• 400 g pappardelle
• 60 g parmesan, finely grated
• ¼ cup flat-leaf parsley, chopped

Equipment

• Heavy casserole with a lid
• Wide pan for browning

Method

1. Brown the shin

   Dry the beef properly and salt it. Brown it hard in oil, in batches, until the surface is genuinely dark — this is the only chance the dish gets to build that flavour. Lift it out and keep it.

   15 min

2. Build the base

   Drop the heat. Cook the onion, carrot and celery in the same fat with a pinch of salt until soft and sweet, about fifteen minutes. Add the garlic for a minute, then the tomato purée, and cook until it darkens.

   18 min

3. Deglaze

   Pour in the wine, scrape everything off the base, and let it reduce until the smell of alcohol is gone.

   5 min

4. The long part

   Return the beef, add the tomatoes and bay, and top up with water until the liquid comes two thirds up the meat. Bring to a bare simmer, lid on, and put it in a 150°C oven. Leave it alone for three hours.

   3 hr

5. Shred and reduce

   Lift out the beef, discard the bones, and shred the meat with two forks. Reduce the sauce uncovered until it clings to a spoon, then return the meat and season properly. It will taste better tomorrow.

   20 min

6. Serve

   Cook the pappardelle a minute short, finish it in the sauce with a splash of pasta water, and serve with parmesan and parsley.

   10 min

Cook's notes

• The sauce freezes better than almost anything else in this book. Freeze it without the pasta, in portions.
• No shin? Oxtail works and is better; chuck works and is fine. Avoid anything lean.
• Doubling this is free — the oven does not care. The browning is the only step that takes longer.