Slow Cook Beef and Red Wine Ragu with Capunti Pasta

Beef and red wine ragu with a glass of wine, on the couch in front of Netflix is my happy place after a long day at the store. It’s fall-apart tender, meaty, full of red wine & tomatoes, hearty meal, and is one of the most soul-warming, dishes around. Plus, I don’t know about you, but I could happily eat pasta every night!

Traditionally, a red wine ragù recipe is made with minced, ground beef, but I love how chuck steak pulls gently apart when it’s slow-cooked for a couple of hours giving the meat sauce a slightly shredded beef consistency, however, any slow cook cut of beef will work.

My big batch recipes generally feed 6-8 serves. The idea is that one batch will feed 3-4 people 2 nights dinner making them great for time-poor people, batch cooks, or like me, cooking for shift workers.

Here’s why you are going to love this beef ragu with capunti pasta

It’s a set-and-forget kinda easy recipe. Half an hour of prep, then pop the red wine ragu into the oven, forget about it for 3 hours, and wait for the magic to happen!

Make a big batch and rehash it! You can easily rehash ragu into multiple nights’ dinner. Try pasta one night, mashed potato and steamed greens the next. You could also turn beef and red wine ragu into a pie by popping it into an oven-proof dish, topping it with puff pastry, and baking until flaky and golden. 

It’s warm, fuzzy and the whole family will love it!. And by that I mean it’s got all the comfort food feels. Pop on your pj’s, curl up on the couch, and open a bottle of wine. It’s a cracking night in!

What you need to get started

• pantry essentials – extra virgin olive oil, beef stock, tomato paste
  
  
  
• vegetables – onions, garlic cloves. You can also substitute garlic powder if fresh garlic is out of season in your area.
  
  
  
• sea salt flakes and freshly ground black pepper to season
  
  
  
• chuck steak – make sure you ask your butcher for a cut of meat suitable for slow cooking. I mainly use chuck steak because it’s so readily available, however, I’ve also cooked this recipe with beef cheeks.  Alternatively, any other slow-cook cuts of beef or even boned-in cuts like beef short ribs or beef chuck roast could be used.
  
  
  
• canned tomatoes – if you have an abundance of San Marzano tomatoes from the garden (the BEST Italian cooking tomatoes), you could substitute fresh for canned whole or crushed tomatoes.
  
  
  
• red wine – Wondering what is the best red wine for cooking beef ragu? I’m not normally fussy when it comes to the type of red wine I use for slow cooking. I’m not a huge red wine lover, but I always have a bottle or two of dry red wine lying around for cooking and the occasional glass. They are normally a cabernet or merlot that costs around $12. 
  
  
  
• fresh herbs – bay leaves, thyme sprigs, and basil
  
  
  
• freshly grated parmesan cheese – Parmigiano Reggiano is just perfect.
  
  
  
• sea salt and pepper to season
  
  
  
• Capunti Pasta. If you’ve never had Capunti pasta, you are in for a treat! They kind of look like empty green pea pods and they go really well with saucy pastas.

If you are as obsessed with slow-cooked stews as I am, check out my Irish Stew recipe. Because what’s the point of an Irishman’s Wife if she doesn’t have a good stew recipe up her sleeve?

The details

1. Preheat the oven to 150°c.
   
   
   
2. In a large Dutch oven over medium-low heat & combine the olive oil and onion. Cook on the stovetop till softened (about 10 minutes). Add garlic. Cook for 1 minute and stir through. Remove the onion from the pan and set aside
   
   
   
3. Add the chuck steak to the pot. Seal all sides of the meat until lightly brown (usually about 1-2 minutes on each side). If you’re using a smaller pan this will need to be done in stages. Don’t overcrowd the pan as the meat will just stew. We’re sealing in all the goodness and rendering any fat on the outside!
   
   
   
4. Add the sauteed onion & garlic back into the pot along with the beef stock, red wine, canned tomato, tomato paste, bay, and thyme.  Give a good stir to release any browned bits stuck on the bottom of the pan from cooking the beef. Bring the tomato sauce to simmer point over medium heat on top of the stove stirring occasionally, then pop in the oven (lid on) for 3 hours.
   
   
   
5. Remove from oven.  Taste test and make sure that beef is falling apart, so you get shreds of it through the pasta. 
   
   
   
6. Serve with cooked al-dente capunti pasta, a shaving of good parmesan, finely chopped basil leaves, and a glass of wine!

How to serve up this slow-cooked beef ragu

Traditionally most red wine ragu sauce recipes are served with ribbons of pappardelle pasta… pappardelle al ragu! Personally, I like to serve my red wine beef ragu recipe with Capunti pasta. All the good, tomato-ey bits get stuck in the crevices. It’s also my favorite pasta so I try to weave it into recipes as much as possible! Oh and always finish this one with a good parmesan and fresh basil. You’ll thank me for it!

A creamy polenta or mashed potato are also great options as is a slice of garlic bread – perfect for mopping up any excess sauce!

Equipment

I always slow-cook my soups and stew in my cast iron French / Dutch ovens. You can also adapt this recipe to cook in an Instant Pot, pressure cooker, or slow cooker. You will also need a sharp cooks knife ( I like a 20cm cooks knife), a chopping board, a heat-resistant spoon (or wooden spoon), and a garlic crusher.

Cooking in cast iron

When it comes to slow cooking, the biggest factor (besides the cut of meat) is what you cook the ragu in. My preference is always cast iron, specifically a cast-iron casserole like a French or Dutch oven. It retains heat like nothing else and can magically turn slow-cooked meals into something really special. While they are an investment, I always say that my cast iron cookware makes me a better cook. Alternatively, you could try a clay pot. Stay away from stainless steel for slow cooking. It just doesn’t work. Stainless steel cookware is more suited to fast cooking, steaming, boiling, frying, etc.

The main thing to remember about cooking in cast iron is to heat up your pan on low heat – never blast with high heat, you’ll only ruin your pan.

A quick tip on buying pasta

When buying pasta from the store, there’s pasta, and there’s pasta. Many supermarket pastas are dried at high temperatures, effectively par cooking the pasta and making it really hard to get a perfect al dente pasta. Seek out those who stock pasta that is air-dried. You will not only notice the superior difference in taste, but the pasta itself is far better for you. 

Hint: Always reserve a little pasta water after you’ve cooked your pasta to add to the pasta sauce. Added flavor right there!

Batch cook this one!

That’s why I never slow-cook a small batch of (any) stew. Batch cooking is a busy mum’s best friend. Cook the beef & red wine ragu in advance, cool, pop into a freezer-safe container, and freeze it into smaller portions that you can whip out of the freezer at any time. Mid-week dinner sorted! Ready to eat? Just cook the pasta and reheat the beef ragu sauce. Dinner is served!

This beef ragu recipe will keep in the fridge, in an airtight container for up to 3 days. Most slow-cooked stews taste better the next day, so where possible, cook your red wine ragu a day in advance.

Obsessed with slow cooking? Me too! Here are a few more slow-cooked recipes for you…

• Persian Lentil Sweet Potato Soup
• Slow-cooked Beef Stroganoff
• Cheats Chicken Curry
• Black Garlic Roast Chicken
• Slow-cooked Beef Cheeks in Red Wine

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