Preheat the oven to 160°C and place the rack in a lower position to fit your Dutch- Oven/pot.

Browning the Beef: Dry the meat and season well with . Heat the oil in a large thick based pan or Dutch oven and once the oil is hot carefully add the seasoned meat using a tongs and cook them till a deep brown color on either side. The time will depend on your stove, the amount of meat that you have in the pan and how brown and flavorful you want them, it can be 5 to 7 minutes or 10 to 20 minutes, depends.

Remove the black bits in the surface of the oil from the burning of the black pepper (if any) and leave the remaining oil in there for the soffritto. If the oil is more than 2 to 3 tablespoons take some out. You can also remove the oil by soaking it up with kitchen tissue paper and discard.

Soffritto & Aromatics: Add the onion, celery carrots and a pinch of salt. Cook on medium to low heat for 20 minutes. In the last 5 minutes add the garlic and continue cooking another 2 minutes. The soffritto should cook until it almost caramelizes and if it starts sticking to the pot, lower the heat.

Aromatics: Add the herbs, spices and tomato, cook while stirring for 5 minutes. Add the tomato paste and the curry paste, keep cooking and stirring for another 10 minutes until your sauce is thick. 

Sauce/Deglaze: Add the wine, increase the heat and let it cook for roughly 10 minutes until most of the alcohol has cooked down. Add the beef stock or water, cover with the lid and place in the oven. Cook for 3 1/2 hours checking once or twice to see if it needs water and only if it does, go with half a cup don't add too much water.

Transfer the short rib to a plate, use two forks to remove the bone and shed the short rib. If you used whole herbs (see notes below) you can remove any visible bits and discard now.

Cook the Pasta: Cook according to packet instructions but stop cooking at least 2 minutes before the required time. With the beef ragu on simmer, transfer the pasta to the beef ragu. Do not drain the pasta, simply transfer directly to the ragu. It will come with specks of pasta water, that's good as the pasta water will help emulsify the sauce and create a creamy sauce without the actual cream. Add pasta water if you want your beef ragu thinner and add parmesan cheese if you want the ragu thicker.

Serve: Serve with freshly grated parmesan cheese, fresh black pepper and chopped fresh thyme.