Beef Ragu with Zucchini Ribbons
Serves: 4
Time: 3-4 hours
This isn’t a fast dinner but once it’s prepped you’re pretty much hands free and the wait is well worth it, for the end result is delicious.
Leftovers
Leftovers are pretty substantial with the ragu but I do normal pasta for my husband’s lunch instead of the zucchini ribbons.
What you'll need
Picking the right meat
Picking the right meat is very important to the final outcome of this dish so it's worth spending the extra coin and making sure you are going with grass fed as the flavour and quality is so much better. A piece that looks like it has been well aged is important too. You are looking for a deep purple colour with a nice marble of fat.
1.2-1.8kg of beef oyster blade
1 brown onion
4 cloves garlic
1 leek
2 carrots
1/4 bunch of oregano
1/4 bunch of thyme
1 cup of red wine
2 x 400g tins of whole peeled tomatoes
1 liter of beef stock
3 zucchini
From the pantry
olive oil
salt and pepper
Optional Extras for Lunch
Pasta - any variety
Feeding Four
You have enough ragu to feed four but I have given you xtra zucchini or if you have kids it might be better done with pasta like tagliatelle.
Prep and Cook
Pre heat oven to 160c
Prep Veg
Peel and finely brunoise your onion.
Finely chop the garlic and herbs.
Peel and slice carrots into a small dice.
Chop leeks in half lengthways and give them a good wash to remove any dirt, then slice again lengthways and then across so that you get a nice small dice.
In a large casserole dish heat 2 tablespoons of oil, then add all of the above ingredients and sauté till lightly golden. Stir regularly.
While your veg are cooking
You can begin cutting up and browning off your meat in batches.
This particular cut melts down perfectly so don’t worry about removing any of the fat or trimming off the connective tissue.
Slice your meat into chunky big squares, roughly the size of half your palms.
Season the meat really well with salt and pepper.
Your veg should be looking lightly golden or caramelized by now so add your red wine to the casserole dish and allow to reduce down by 2/3 then remove from the heat.
Heat a large non stick fry pan with a good tablespoon of oil.
Begin browning off your meat in batches being careful not to overcrowd your fry pan.
I like to brown my meat on all sides, similar to how you would like to see a beautifully cooked piece of steak, lovely and golden brown almost to the point where you could consider it to be crispy. The more you brown the meat the better the flavours will be.
Once the meat is done, transfer it to the casserole dish and continue with your next batch of meat.
Repeat steps until all your meat is cooked.
Add the liquids
Add your tins of tomatoes to the casserole dish, crushing the tomatoes with your hands as you tip them out. Swill the cans out with 1/3 a can of water (this removes any left behind tomato goodness).
Add your beef stock and season the mix well with salt and pepper.
Give everything a good stir, then place the lid on and pop into the oven for 3 hours.
Check meat
Cooking time varies
With any long slow cooked dish it's always worth allowing extra time for a varying degree off cooking. One cut of oyster blade can be completely different to another, depending on so so many factors. These include: breed, the way it's been raised and the way it's been slaughtered. These are just a couple of factors that can influence the quality of meat so meat won't always cook the same. Patience is required - if it's still tough you'll need to allow more time and make sure it is covered in lovely juices.
Check every hour to see how progress is going. Most importantly, you want the meat to be completely submerged in the sauces at all times, so if you need to add some water.
After 3 hours your meat should fall apart when you stab it with a fork. If it still feels tough you’ll want to keep cooking it until it is lovely and soft.
If you are happy with how soft it is
Remove your casserole dish from the oven and transfer just the meat into a mixing bowl.
Place the sauce on the stove and bring up to a boil, then turn down slightly and cook to a light saucy consistency.
Meanwhile take two forks and rip your meat up into small shreds.
Return meat to the sauce once ready.
Make ribbons
Use a potato peeler to peel the zucchini ribbons directly into each of the dinner bowls.
Peel each side of the zucchini just as far as the seeds. Wrap the leftover part of zucchini and you can add these to your fritter mix.
Ladle the ragu into the centre of your ribbons.
This is a pretty rich dish but if you wanted some shards of Parmesan would work or even a soft curd.
Enjoy!
Lunch tomorrow
You might want to put on a pot of pasta to go with lunch for tomorrow. Or if your feeling real fancy you could turn the leftover mix into little pies with some puff pastry.