Slow Cooked Short Rib Ragu (Oven)

Short Rib Ragu is a fragrant and flavorful meat based Italian sauce which uses the cooking method of browning, seasoning and searing to lock in the flavors.

What is Beef Ragu?

A ragu is an intense Italian based sauce that's flavorful slow cooked and traditionally served with pasta, gnocchi or polenta.

Slow cooked in the oven with a rich red wine and tomato sauce, fresh and dried herbs, this meat is not only fall-off the bone delicious, it's also as tasty as this Creamy Beef Ragu And Pasta

How To Finish Short Rib Ragu

Transfer the cooked pasta directly into the low simmering ragu sauce, making sure to toss or as I like to say 'fold it in'. You know, this is such a beautiful dish and for me to say 'toss it in' I feel like I'm talking about a salad. It's a Beef Ragu. It takes time and you must have patience but its both rewarding and in that we grow. Did you know that learning something is growth? Cooking a new dish, cooking the same dish but a different way, the process, the time, it teaches us more than just cooking. Anyway, you get the gist of what I'm saying right, and maybe for another day 🙂

Point is, the ragu must coat the pasta all round and if you find that it's too thick, pour in some pasta water to thin it out, if it's too loose, add about a half a cup of grated parmesan cheese. Have it on low simmer so that the pasta and beef ragu can have a conversation, they can marry and absorb the sauce.

What Cut of Meat To Use For Beef Ragu?

This recipe uses beef short rib, other great cuts of meat for beef ragu are beef chuck roast and beef brisket. All great choices for slow cooking.

What Makes A Ragu A Ragu?

Ragu is a meat-based sauce where traditionally, pieces of meat and a soffritto are slow cooked in a beef stock and red wine.

Can A Ragu Be Made With Any Meat?

Yes, you can use any meat that is good for a slow braising type of cooking. Chicken, lamb, wild boar and yes, short ribs.

Ingredients For Short Rib Ragu

Short Rib: We use bone-in or boneless since they are both the same meat and our family is very divided on this (it's an actual discussion). The boneless piece is cut from either the chuck of plate and without the bone. Personally, I think that the bone-in has a little more fat (so perhaps use less oil in the recipe) but my goodness it makes a good pot of beef ragu! Fat and bone always add incredible flavor. You remove the bones anyway to shred the meat.

Soffritto: Onion, Celery, Carrots, the base of a soffrito and how many Italian recipes start including most stew recipes.

Garlic: This is added to the soffritto in this recipe. We use 5 cloves of minced garlic. If you prefer, you can use less.

Tomato Paste: It's concentrated so it adds depths of flavor and as I mentioned in my creamy beef ragu, I always add the tomato paste to the aromatics and not to a liquid as in after the stock/wine. It's a lot more effective in the aromatics you can see the soffritto come alive after the paste is added, love it!

Canned Tomatoes: Crushed, diced or whole is doesn't matter. I always use crushed and diced if I don't have whole. A good quality whole tomatoes carries a lot more richer tomato juice. It is not necessary to add the tomatoes to a food processor (but feel free if you prefer to do it that way). The ragu is in the oven or on the stove top for a minimum of 2 ½ hours, trust me when I tell you, they will no longer be whole. My only thing with crushed is they tend to have a lot of water if they are not great quality.

Red wine: A red wine that you won't mind drinking. Red wine and beef slow cook are a match made in heaven, the wine adds a boost to the sauce. There is simply nothing like a tomato slow cook and adding red wine adds such a boost to the flavor that you cannot get from stock and water. (true story).

Beef Stock: Store bought or homemade. There are some great organic choices in store bought if you haven't made your own beef stock. You can also use chicken stock but like adding water, the taste and color will be different in the end dish. Still good, but different.

Pasta: This recipe uses pappardelle but you can use other pasta types. I have added more on this in the creamy beef ragu if you want to know, but essentially all pasta's work, pappardelle is just the best choice.

How To Make Short Rib Ragu

Quick Note: I used a Dutch-oven to but you can use any pot that's heavy and thick enough to retain heat and deep enough. You are going to be adding chunks of meat and liquid so it needs to be quite deep. It also need to be go into the oven with the lid, so oven friendly! You can also make beef ragu in a slow cooker and in an IP, I just havent got there yet and am not sure I will. The idea of a slow cook beef ragu is the part 'slow cook'.

Add olive oil to the base of your Dutch oven/pot and let it heat up. Once the oil is hot, carefully add the short ribs to the pot. Cook until each side is a deep golden brown. Try not to over-crowd the pot and preferably cook them in batches so that there is even browning. Remember this process is all about locking in those flavors so cook the short ribs in batches and brown on both sides. This is the genius of Italian cooking where you need to use each step in a way that gives you maximum flavor in the end result. I'm sharing one of the images from the creamy ragu of this deep brown. I love this recipe so much because it speaks to my style of cooking. As an anosmic home cook, layering the flavors is all I've got. Flavor and color.

Once you've browned the meat and moved it to another plate or bowl you can get started on the soffritto.

If you've been following my blog or are part of our newsletter then you will know how intense I get about the soffritto! Seriously it needs to cook for as long as you can muster it, which is all of 20 minutes? Yes? Great! Sometimes (99%) I let it cook for 30 minutes on very low heat.

Making The Soffritto and Aromatics

Add the vegetables - onion, carrots and celery to the pot. Same pot with the oil where you browned the meat! Never wash the pot, keep the same oil, we are building flavor on flavor every step of the way!

My only suggestion here would be to remove some of the oil before adding the vegetables if you have too much oil in the pot. Leave about 3 tablespoons of oil for the soffritto to cook. Remember that we want to cook for 20 to 30 minutes so it needs the oil.

I always remove the oil and leave some behind but I hold onto the oil that I've removed just incase you notice that the soffritto needs more oil you have it in hand! Keep the heat on low to medium and if your soffritto is burning, lower the heat but keep it going.

Storage|Freezing

Yes you can definitely freeze short rib ragu if you have any leftovers that is! In the case that you do, do not discard, it tastes better the as it sits! Simply let it cool completely to room temperature before you transfer it to an airtight container. It will freeze and be safe to eat up to 3 months. Don't forget to take the time to mark the date on a sticker for the container or write it on the heavy duty freezer bag, using a bag. If you are like me, you won't remember when you put it there. I have learnt and now have everything marked. If it's in the freezer, there's a date!

Make Ahead Short Rib

This is a great recipe to make ahead because as always, it saves you time. Transfer the cooled sauce to an airtight container and store in the refrigerator. It will stay good for about 4 days. When you ready, cook your pasta and serve. When I make my creamy beef ragu, I use the same method to make ahead, move the cooled rib ragu sauce to an airtight container. The next day, since everything is done, all I have to do is rewarm it on the stove and pour in the cream.

How To Save Pasta Water

Very easy! Wait for the pasta water to cool down, don't spill it, instead, pour it into a container or glass jar, seal and leave it in the fridge, done! To warm up beef ragu, simply take the water out the fridge as the beef ragu warms up (if you had left overs) and use of the pasta water that you need to create a sauce and enjoy all over again!

Deglaze and Layer The Short Rib Ragu Sauce

Here's what we need to deglaze;

• Red wine
• Beef stock
• Herbs and spices

Add the red wine and immediately start scraping up with a wooden spoon all the bits at the bottom of the pan.

Every step in this recipe is about building our flavor profile.

Add the tomato, beef stock and herbs and spices. You can chop up some fresh herbs or use kitchen twine to tie them and pop them into the beef ragu before it goes into the oven. We use both the fresh herbs and dried herbs. Fresh for aroma infusion while they are in the oven (then discard the fresh herbs) and dried herbs to enhance the umami flavors. Garlic and Herb + Involtini are the spices we use in beef ragu.

Always add the spices to the aromatics.

Stealing images from the newly updated Creamy Beef Ragu And Pasta

When To Add The Braised Short Ribs Back To The Ragu

When the short ribs have been seared, soffritto and aromatics cooked, tomato and wine have both enriched the sauce, it's time to bring those flavor packed seared short ribs back. Get all the short ribs, preferably with a pair of tongs comfortably into the pot snuggling into the ragu as you add them.

Place the lid on and into the oven it goes for 3 ½ to 4 hours until the meat is fall-apart, fall apaaarrrt tender! Check in at random points of the cooking process just to make sure that the liquid is still enough and it does need a dash more then add a little.

Can You Cook Ragu For 2 Hours?

How tender do you want the beef? Remember that this cut of meat lends itself easily to slow cooking and anything less than two and half hours will probably still be tough. Okay you may not need 3 ½ to 4 hours you could want to make my creamy beef ragu for 2 ½ to 3 hours, now that's something!

Pasta and Serving Preparation

• Remove the Dutch oven/pot from the oven and let it rest in the pot 5 minutes.

• Remove the meat into a plate or platter and this is where you get to decide if you want to remove all the bones or not. I remove half the bones because I prefer just the mouthwatering fall apart meat while my husband prefers bone in. Here we have a half/half situation of bone-in and bone taken out.

Top Tips For Short Rib Ragu

• The short ribs need to be dry so use kitchen tissue paper or a clean kitchen towel to get as much damp (moisture) from them as you can.

• You need 2 forks to pull the meat apart, seperate the meat from the bones and if you are serving just the meat then keep the bones, they make a great stock!

• Thick based pot or a Dutch oven that retains heat which will most likely be able to go into the oven as well if you are cooking these ribs in the oven. For a stove-top version of this beef ragu take a look at this Creamy Short Rib Ragu Recipe.

• When adding the cheese, add in parts instead of all at once, it makes a difference.

Serving

Serve the short rib ragu and pasta with freshly grated Parmigiana (Parmesan cheese) and chopped fresh herbs or sprinkles of thyme. Serve warm and enjoy!

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