Chef Adam’s Famous Beef Ragu Recipe

Ventuno Walsh Bay’s Head Chef Adam Spencer is sharing his much loved recipe for a warming winter Beef Ragu. Adam was previously Head Chef at Sydney Restaurant Group’s Ripples Milsons Point as well as a number of establishments across Sydney and the UK. This ragu is one of our most popular dishes at Ventuno served with fresh pasta. This recipe is definitely one to add to your repertoire!

This particular ragu uses a mixture of Angus beef cheek and shin. “The cheeks give a wonderful gelatinous texture and the shin a very savoury meaty flavour and texture,” says Adam.

When making this at home, visit your local butcher to buy the best quality ingredients available for your budget. The secret ingredient for this recipe or any ragu, is time -

“Make love to it! There is a process and many layers of flavour to be built. So crack open a bottle of wine, turn on your favourite podcast and enjoy”

-Adam Spencer

Recipe: serves 4

Ingredients:

500g beef cheek/shin (can be substituted for veal, pork cheek or lamb shoulder)

250ml good red wine (+500ml to drink whilst cooking)

1 stick celery

1 small leek

30ml olive oil

1 medium brown onion

1 carrot

5 cloves garlic (or as much as you like, I love garlic!)

1 tin cherry tomatoes (I suggest the Mutti brand which is available in most supermarkets)

3 tablespoons tomato puree

1 sprig rosemary

1 sprig thyme

1 cinnamon stick

6 peppercorns

2 piece star anise

30g grated Pecorino

1 small bunch flat parsley

10g salt

20g butter

390g Your favourite fresh/dried pasta (pictured here with pappardelle)

Equipment required:

1 medium/large sized pot/casserole dish

1 medium pot

1 sharp knife

1 chopping board

1 grater

1 piece chux

Method

• Take your meat out of the fridge and let stand for 30 minutes. This will assist with less shrinkage in the meat.

• Dice the meat into 2-3cm cubes, removing any tough sinew if necessary and season.

• Take the large cooking pot and seal the beef until golden brown and set aside

• Use a food processor or finely chop the celery, onion and carrot

• Add the vegetables to the same pot that you cooked the beef in with some olive until lightly golden.

• Remove the outer leek skin and open up. Place in the rosemary, thyme peppercorn, cinnamon and star anise. Wrap the ingredients in the leek skin like an envelope and fold until closed. Tie with a small piece of string so that the ingredients can’t escape.

• Add in the tomato paste and cook for a further 30 seconds before deglazing the pot with red wine and cook for a further 2 minutes.

• Then add the sealed beef back to the pot with the vegetables and add the tin of tomatoes, 750ml water and salt. Add the leek full of spices.

• Bring the pot to the boil then turn down to the lowest heat. Simmer for 2-3 hours, stirring every so often until the meat is tender.

• Remove from the heat. With a fork, gently pull the meat into the sauce so you have some small and large pieces and the meat breaks down into the sauce. Allow this to relax and stand.

• Bring a medium pot of salted water to the boil.

• Add your pasta to the water and cook for as long as your pasta instructs you. At Ventuno we use fresh pasta so this takes, 3.5 minutes until al dente. Add the pasta and around 100ml of pasta water to the pot of ragu that has been standing.

• Turn the ragu back on the heat and allow to simmer for another 1-2 minutes, constantly stirring and tossing. This step of finishing off the cooking of the pasta in the sauce is called ‘mantecare’ in Italian. The starch in the pasta and pasta water creates a creamy rich sauce.

• Finish with the butter and a sprinkle of pecorino. Toss again, drizzle with good olive oil and serve in a bowl.

• Top with grated pecorino and chopped flat parsley and enjoy

Buon appetitio!