Pappardelle with Beef Ragu

In last week's post, I mentioned The Pasta Shop. It's one of my favorite eateries because they do handmade fresh pasta, their menu is simple and delicious, and I really like supporting local small businesses. Their most popular dish is the pappardelle with a meaty ragu, which I have yet to try. The last time I was there though, I witnessed a neighboring table being served that dish and after that I couldn't stop thinking about eating a deliciously rich tomato-y sauce over a pile of homemade pasta so I decided to quell the craving by making it myself.

Ingredients [serves 6 to 8]:
1 lb. flank steak
1 teaspoon salt
½ teaspoon pepper
¼ cup olive oil
4 cloves garlic
1 medium onion, roughly chopped
4 carrots, roughly chopped
1 teaspoon crushed pepper flakes
4 oz. tomato paste
1 cup red wine
4 oz. crushed tomatoes
2 cups water
salt & pepper to taste

Start by roughly chopping the carrots and onion and crushing the garlic.

Add the garlic to a food processor first and give it a good blitz to make sure it's broken down. Then, add in the carrots and onion and pulse until finely chopped.

Cut the flank steak into 1" strips and season generously with salt and pepper.

Get a french oven heating over medium high and add in the olive oil. When the pot is hot, add in the flank steak and sear on both sides for a few minutes until browned. Remove the meat and set aside.

Add the contents of the food processor into the pot along with the chili flakes. Cook the soffritto for 15 to 20 minutes, stirring occasionally, or until most of the moisture has cooked off and the vegetables start to brown.

Add the tomato paste and stir in and lightly "toast" until the mixture is a rich burgundy.

Deglaze the pan with a glass of red wine.

Add in a container of crushed tomatoes and some water and stir to combine. Nestle the flank steak back into the sauce, pop on a lid, and reduce the heat to low. Simmer the sauce for 3 hours, stirring occasionally, or until the meat is falling apart tender.

While the sauce is going, you can make the fresh pasta. Dry pasta is okay too; but since you have the time, you might as well, right?

When the sauce is ready, pull the meat out and shred with two forks. Put the meat back into the sauce, stir, and that's the sauce; done. This is enough sauce for about 8 servings of pasta so I set aside about half into a mason jar for future consumption.

When you're ready to eat, boil the pasta (fresh noodles only take a two to three minutes), drain, and toss in the sauce. I like to finish with a pat of butter.

This ragu really has such awesome depth of flavor thanks to the well-developed soffritto. There's a nice earthiness from the wine, sweetness from the tomatoes, richness from the slow-cooked beef, and I think it's gorgeous.

Here's the recipe page: