This is one of my favorite dishes on restaurant menus. Every time I see it, I am always tempted to order it. I often find this on the menus of not just Italian restaurants, but American restaurants and steak houses. One day while dining at Branca in Rochester NY, we ordered a variation of this dish (because you know, I can’t resist), and immediately I said to myself, “Danggit! This is ridiculous! I need to make this. How hard can it be?” So after some researching and testing, here we are.
I will say that I have made many versions of this, each with some slight variation which included adding various herbs, chili flakes, pancetta, more wine, less wine, with tomato sauce, no tomato sauce, diced tomatoes, roasted tomatoes, chicken stock, beef stock, dusting the ribs with flour before browning – or not … I mean the variation is endless. Each time it always turned out pretty dang good, which tells me this is a very forgiving and flexible dish. So this recipe that I present to you is where I’ve landed. It’s the most simple and basic version, leaving room for you to create your own variation.
Today, I used an Instant Pot because I was a poor planner and didn’t leave myself enough time to make it the conventional way. If you don’t have an Instant Pot or a pressure cooker, you will need to leave yourself some time (about 3 hours) to allow the meat to cook to off-the-bone tenderness. Other than that, everything else is the same.
As for pasta, I used Malfadine, my new favorite for meat sauces like this. You might need to go to a special grocer or online to find it, but it’s excellent for catching all that beefy, meaty goodness. Alternatively you can use any wide pasta like fettuccini, tagliatelle, parpadelle or tubes like rigatoni or Garganelli. Also any pasta with nooks and crannies like farfalle, radiatore, or rotini would all be great. The world’s your oyster! Enjoy!
Beef Short Rib Ragu
Ingredients
- 2 lbs beef short ribs, about 4-5 pieces depending on size
- 1 cup chopped onion
- 1 cup chopped carrot
- 1 cup chopped celery
- 4-5 cloves garlic, minced
- 1 tbsp tomato paste
- 3/4-1 cup red wine
- 3/4 cup tomato puree or sauce
- 1 can stock, chicken or beef
- 1 bay leaf
- salt & pepper
- 1 tbsp corn starch, mixed with 1 tbsp water
- 1 handful chopped parsley
- 1/2 lb pasta (see notes), cooked just before al dente
To Serve
- parmesan cheese
- extra chopped parsley
How I Make It
- Trim off excess fat on the ribs. If you skip this step, you will likely need to skim off exess fat (oil) from the top of the sauce. Pat the rib pieces dry and season liberally with salt and pepper both sides.
- In the meantime, heat the instant pot to high on 'sautee' setting. You can also do this in pan on the stove. Add oil, and brown the rib pieces on both sides. Remove and set aside.
- In the same pan, add a little oil if needed, and add the chopped carrot, celery, and onion. Sautee until they start to soften, loosening any fond that is stuck on the bottom of the pan. Add garlic, and sautee a few minutes longer.
- Add tomato paste and mix through. Then add wine and stock. Return the browned rib pieces to the sauce. The sauce should cover at least 3/4 of the way up the ribs. If not, add more liquid (any liquid - wine, tomato, stock, or even water). Add bay leaf.
- If using instant pot, pressure cook for 40 minutes an natural release for 10 minutes. If using conventional stove top, bring the sauce to a boil then simmer for 2-3 hours or until the meat is tender.
- Remove the ribs and shred the meat; set aside.
- Cook your pasta following the package instructions but undercook it (just before it gets to al dente). You will finish cooking the pasta in the sauce.
- Remove the bay leaf, and check the consistency. It will be watery. If you want a smoother sauce (fewer or smaller vegetable chunks), blend with a hand blender until you get to your preferred consistency. Add a slurry of corn starch and water and bring the sauce to a boil to thicken it. Taste and season with salt and pepper.
- Add the partially cooked pasta and let it finish cooking in the sauce - a minute or so more. The pasta will release some starch, which will also help thicken the sauce. Add chopped parsley and toss everything through the sauce.
- To serve, top with shaved parmesan and more parsley. Enjoy!
Notes
- You can use any kind of pasta you like. Pasta that are wider noodle such as fettuccine, tagliatelle, parpadelle, malfadine (my favorite for this, and what I use in the video); you can also use wide tube pastas such as rigatoni. The idea is you want enough surface area (or nooks & crannies to catch the sauce)
