Thursday, December 30, 2010

Easy Beef Ragu with Fettuccine


Ragu is a rich, meaty sauce made with lots of red wine. I made this ragu extra easy (totally cheated) by using my favorite jarred sauce, Classico Tomato-Basil as a base. You can make ragu with almost any kind of meat; I made this with some of the ground beef I got in my beef order from Utah Natural Meat (read about my first beef order here). The smell in my kitchen as the sauce simmered was close to divine, and the taste was wonderful. Use whatever kind of pasta you want--my kids are on a fettuccine kick right now--and serve it with plenty of fresh Parmesan, please.

Note: You'll want to cover the sauce while it simmers or you'll have splatters everywhere. I like to use a mesh splatter screen like the one here. I bought my set of 2 (1 large, 1 medium) at Walmart for super cheap.

Easy Beef Ragu with Fettuccine
printable recipe

1 lb lean ground beef
1 medium onion, 1/4-inch diced
3 medium carrots, 1/4-inch diced
1 1/2 cups red wine (I used a Cabernet Sauvignon)
1 32-oz jar Classico Tomato-Basil pasta sauce
Cooked fettuccine or other pasta
fresh shredded Parmesan cheese for serving

1. Heat a large (12-inch) skillet over medium-high heat.

2. Cook and crumble the ground beef just until it's no longer pink; drain any fat if necessary. Add the onion and carrot and cook, stirring often, until they are softened, about 5 minutes. Add the red wine, reduce the heat to maintain a simmer, and cook until it's reduced by about half, 8-10 minutes, stirring occasionally.

3. Add the pasta sauce, bring it to a low simmer, cover with a splatter screen, and simmer until very thick. I let mine simmer for just over an hour, and actually needed to add a little of my pasta cooking water to loosen it up before serving; it just depends on how thick you want your sauce. You can use a regular, solid lid, but your sauce won't be as thick.

4. Toss the sauce with your pasta and serve with Parmesan cheese.

Sauce serves 4-6 people.

1 comment:

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