Not to be confused with the Italian ragu, which is a meat-based pasta sauce, this hearty, slow-cooked French-style stew is great for freezer-friendly batch cooking
Lucy is an inventive freelance food stylist and food writer working in magazines, books and other projects. Former Deputy Food Editor of food magazine Delicious, Lucy now works for an array of clients including; Sainsburys, Good Food and Delicious.
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Lucy O'Reilly
Lucy is an inventive freelance food stylist and food writer working in magazines, books and other projects. Former Deputy Food Editor of food magazine Delicious, Lucy now works for an array of clients including; Sainsburys, Good Food and Delicious.
See more of Lucy O'Reilly’s recipes
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Ingredients
1.8kg (trimmed weight) beef braising steak, chopped into 3-4cm chunks, or 4 x 450g packs diced beef
3 tbsp olive oil
1 x 206g pack cubetti di pancetta, or 180g smoked cubetti di pancetta
2 large onions, diced
2 large carrots, peeled and finely diced
2 large sticks of celery, finely diced
5 garlic cloves, crushed
3 tbsp tomato purée
2 bay leaves
200ml red wine
2 x 400g tins chopped tomatoes
600ml fresh beef stock
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Keeps in the fridge for up to 3 days, or can be frozen. Defrost overnight in the fridge, then add a splash of water; reheat in a pan.
Preheat the oven to 160°C, fan 140°C, gas 3. Season the beef. Add 1 tablespoon of the oil to a large frying pan; brown the beef in batches over a medium-high heat. Using a draining spoon, transfer to a large casserole with a lid, leaving any oil in the pan. Continue to brown the remaining beef, adding a splash of oil to the pan between each batch, and transferring the beef to the casserole when done.
Add the pancetta to the frying pan and fry until the fat has rendered out, then add to the beef using a draining spoon. Add the onions, carrots and celery to the oil in the frying pan, stir, and cook over a low heat for 10-15 minutes until softened.
Increase the heat, add the garlic; cook for 2 minutes, then add the tomato purée and bay leaves and cook for 1 minute more. Add the wine; bubble to reduce by half.
Tip the vegetables into the casserole and add the tomatoes, stock and 150ml water. Season, stir, and bring to a simmer then cover with a lid; transfer to the middle of the oven. Cook for 3-3 1⁄2 hours, or until the meat is tender and the sauce slightly reduced.
Break up the meat with a couple of forks and stir into the sauce. Portion up as required.
Tip
Turn ragout into...
Chilli con carne Fry1 deseeded and diced green chilli, ½ tsp chilli flakes, 2 tsp ground cumin, 1 tsp ground cinnamon and 1 tsp dried oregano in 1tbsp oil. Stir in 900g beef ragout, add a tin of black beans and 150ml Mexican lager (such as Sol). Partially cover and simmer for 20-25 minutes, stirring occasionally. Season to taste, add a squeeze of lime juice and chopped coriander.
Moroccan tagine Fry 1 tbsp harissa paste, 1 tsp ground coriander and 1 tsp ground cumin in 1tbsp oil. Stir in 900g beef ragout, along with 200ml vegetable stock, 125g halved dried apricots, and 90g pitten green olives.Bring to a simmer, cover and cook for 20 minutes; check the seasoning. Serve with herby bulgur wheat, natural yoghurt and lemon wedges.
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The difference between ragu and ragout isn't really that much ragu is an Italian pasta sauce that is usually made with minced meat or vegetables and ragout is a French style stew that would normally be found on-top of a Paris style mash but the Italians would do this on-top of polenta.
This beef ragu is a flavor explosion of carefully-selected ingredients, including: Beef. Chuck roast is the best choice here. It shreds nicely and becomes super tender and flavorful after cooking for a few hours.
If the beef is still tough after 2.5 hours of cooking, it needs to cook for longer. Make sure the sauce is still bubbling very gently (you should be able to see bubbles appearing in the sauce; if not, the heat is too low and the beef will take a lot longer to cook).
A ragout is essentially the same as a stew, except that most recipes for ragout are originally French, and often the meat and vegetables are cut into smaller pieces than in a typical stew. Ragouts vary in flavor and ingredients — you can skip the meat and make a vegetarian ragout, for example.
When it comes to slow-braised beef ragus, you can't really overcook the sauce. It's recommended that your cook your ragu for at least two hours. If you plan on cooking for longer, make sure there is enough liquid in the pot to keep the sauce properly hydrated so it doesn't burn.
Stir occasionally but honestly, just leave it to do its thing. The end result should be a dark red sauce with very little residual liquid. After many tests, the optimal cooking time is between 4-5 hours for the best flavour. It's, of course, perfect and traditional to serve with pasta; my favourite is tagliatelle.
In general, it's best to stick to the indicated cook time on the recipe you're following. Most slow cooker meals take 8-12 hours on low or 4-6 hours on high, but there are also recipes for slow-cooked meat that take up to 24 hours.
The longer cooking time and the low heat complement each other perfectly. As a result, even though the meat is cooked for far longer, it doesn't dry out because the temperature is low. As a result, this is the best way to retain all the natural juices of the meat.
Slow cookers are specially designed to cook food for long periods of time, but yes, you can still overcook in a slow cooker if something is left on the wrong setting for longer than it's supposed to be.
Whisk a teaspoon of flour in a little cold water to make a slurry, then stir into the stew as it's cooking. Don't add dry flour directly to the stew as it may clump. After adding the slurry, bring the stew to boil. This will cook out the flour taste and allow the starch to swell.
What is ragù? Ragù is a meat-based sauce, typically served with pasta. Traditionally, pieces of meat (often beef, pork, game, or even horse), are cooked on a low heat in a braising liquid (this is usually tomato or wine-based) over a long period of time.
If you think these sauces are very similar, you are right. Bolognese sauce is actually a form of ragù, meaning that they both start from the same basic recipe. In fact, Bolognese's official name is ragù alla bolognese or, in English, Bologna-style ragù.
Ragù is an Italian meat-based pasta sauce with a little bit of tomato/tomato paste (but not overwhelmingly tomato like a marinara would be). Think bolognese. Ragout, on the other hand, is a thick and chunky French stew, meat or veg-based and cooked long and slow until the flavors are rich and robust.
Here's the gist: the two ways Italians say “sauce” in Italian are salsa and/or sugo. Both words translate as “sauce” but never as “gravy.” Ragù doesn't even translate as “gravy” but comes close enough since it involves meat which is what people really mean when they say “gravy” (my personal opinion).
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Prep time: 55 mins
