wine-braised beef ragù
Some people make holiday cookies. I make holiday ragù. I used to host an entire party themed around bolognese. I freeze it in containers and bring them as gifts. It just isn’t The Season without it.
This year, one of my favorite cookware brands—Great Jones—reached out to partner on a campaign for their cast iron collection. I normally do not do #sponcon, but given I already pay for and feature most of their other cookware on this site I made an exception, and so they sent me their gorgeous 6.75 qt Dutchess Dutch oven (available in black!) in time for this year’s Holiday Ragù Moment.
The Dutchess at work
This ragù is desgined to be simple, with only a few ingredients and very little hands-on time involved. It is not quite an everyday ragù (it takes too long), but more of an every-weekend ragù for people who are inclined towards but intimidated by recipes for bolognese. Here’s how you do it.
You need a lot of wine. You will open a bottle and you will use all of it. Wine, rather than tomato, is the backbone of the ragù, so the finished dish is lighter and less gravy-like than a Southern Italian red meat sauce.
Specifically, a white wine. Most other recipes I’ve seen for braised beef ragù use red wine. Can you use red wine here? Definitely, but it will come out with a different personality, similar to blonde and brunette siblings. Part of that is color: I prefer this orange, burnished look with a shredded meat sauce, and red wine will make it much darker. Two is acid: red wine makes dishes headier but heavier, where white wine gives them zest and attitude. With beef chuck a heavy cut of meat as it is, I like the contrast white wine adds: like blonde hair with black eyebrows. This is, incidentally, the exact opposite of how I like my bolognese.
You do NOT need a lid. Most recipes I see say to put the cover on. There are two reasons here we don’t do that. One reason is that it makes the temperature inside the pot hotter, and a hotter pot = more boiling = tougher meat that cooks faster but tastes less good. Going topless into the oven ensures things stay at a simmering temperature. The second reason is that exposing the surface area to heat actually caramelizes the top layer of tomatoes. Caramelized tomato = more flavor = better ragù. Today’s math lesson = complete.
You need time. 3 hours is the sweet spot. While it’s cooking, you’ll rehydrate the ragù every so often with the bottle of wine you’ll leave on the counter, which you will need to do because of the evaporation caused by not covering the pot. It is officially done when you can easily shred all the meat with the tip of a pair of tongs. By this time, your ragù will contain an entire bottle of wine!
You need enamel cast iron. A long-braised ragù like this is a multiphase dish of two extremes, involving a very high searing temperature on the stove followed by a very slow braise in a low oven. Enamel cast iron is the only material that truly handles both of these tasks equally well, in part because it heats up slow and retains that heat evenly over a long period of time. This one has the nubby raw cast iron finish on the outside that feels pleasantly like a cauldron. However, tomatoes and other high-acid foods can have a negative effect with cast iron interiors, which is why I do ragù exclusively in enameled pots that don’t expose the ingredients directly to the metal.
(Sidenote: if you have someone on your list who likes cooking and/or reminds you of me, you can get 15% off of this Dutch baddie or anything at Great Jones’ site until 12/20 by using this link and the code ITALIANENOUGH_15.)
It’s not how you start, but how you finish. This is a very basic dish to put together. The real edge comes in at the end. Like its cousin bolognese, this ragù gets splashed with a bit of cream at the last second for a luxurious texture—not so much that it turns into pink sauce, but enough to mellow everything out nicely. And inspired by the great bolognese at Marvin in Los Angeles, I like to add a tiny bit of truffle oil at the end to really give this a festive holiday touch. Truffle is the icing on the ragù cookie. Maybe next year I’ll host a holiday sauce exchange.
RECIPE
A simple, wine-forward beef ragù cooked the old-school way: low and slow in heavy cast iron until falling apart. A splash of cream, good parm, and a drizzle of truffle oil at the end make it pure luxury.
Effortful time: 30 minutes
Total time: 3 1/2-4 hours
Makes enough for 1 1/2 lbs. of pasta
*Can be doubled in the same size pan for a larger, freezer-friendly batch
YOU NEED
1 tbsp. extra virgin olive oil
2 1/2 lbs. beef chuck, cut into 2” cubes (a butcher counter will do this for you)
1 small onion, finely diced
1 medium carrot, finely diced
1 rib celery, finely diced
6 cloves garlic, minced
1 tbsp. tomato paste
750ml dry white wine
14 oz can crushed tomatoes or whole San Marzano tomatoes, pureed
3/4 cup beef broth; I used Better Than Bouillon
1 sprig fresh rosemary
Salt and pepper, to taste
2 tbsp heavy cream
1 tsp. quality truffle oil, optional but highly recommended; I really like Truff brand
MAKE IT
Get prepped. Preheat your oven to 325°F (if you have a convection oven, do this at 300°F). Finely dice your onion, carrot, and celery, or toss them in the food processor. If you’re using whole canned tomatoes, puree these now; I like to dump mine in one of my pour-friendly silicone measuring cups and hit them quickly with my stick blender. Mince your 6 cloves of garlic and prepare to have your wine open for deglazing.
Brown the beef. In a large cast iron Dutch oven (I used my largest 6.75 qt. enamel cast from Great Jones), heat 1 tbsp. olive oil over medium-high until shimmering—now is a good time to turn on your vent. Salt and pepper the beef all over. Using tongs, add the cubes to the oil so that they do not touch, and sear them hard until a nice brown crust forms, about 4-5 minutes. Flip them over and repeat on another side. Once two of the four sides have color, remove them to a bowl, and repeat with the rest of the beef until you’ve seared all of it. Take all the beef out of the pot and turn the heat to medium-low.
Saute the aromatics. In the remaining beef pan-fat, add the carrots, celery, and onion and cook until beginning to soften, about 4 minutes. Stir in the garlic and cook 15 seconds more. Add the tomato paste and quickly stir to combine, then deglaze with a big splash of the white wine. Let this simmer for a moment until it stops steaming like crazy, about 1 minute.
Build and boil the sauce. Add all the meat back to the pan, then pour over the canned tomatoes, beef broth, and half the bottle of wine (but don’t drink the rest—we’re going to need it!). Add a pinch more salt. Stir together until evently combined, then tuck in a rosemary sprig.
Cook it uncovered low and slow for 3 hours. Check it every hour. Add half the remaining wine at hour 1, and the rest of the bottle at hour 2. Remove the rosemary at hour 2 and discard.
Cook pasta. I set salty water to boil about 2 hours, 30 minutes into the cook time.
Finish the sauce. After 3 hours, take the sauce out of the oven and, right in the pan, use a spatula or tongs to gently shred all the meat pieces—it will happen easily. Stir in 2 tbsp. of heavy cream and a drizzle of truffle oil.
Bring it all together and serve. If you’re only making a few servings, save some pasta water, drain the pasta, and return it to its pot. Add enough sauce for your pasta and toss together with tongs over low heat, splashing in pasta water to keep it shiny. If you’re making the entire batch at once, this step is even easier: move your pasta pot close to your sauce pot, then use tongs to transfer it (with water still clinging to it) right into the sauce. Toss to combine, using a cup to pull in pasta water as needed. Top with lots of fresh parm.
Any leftover sauce can be frozen and defrosted for later!