Short Rib Ragu Recipe on Food52 (2024)

FAQs

What to pair with short rib ragu? ›

What To Serve with This Short Rib Ragu. The options are truly endless here, but I love to pile this on storebought gnocchi, freshly-made gnocchi, cauliflower gnocchi, or some delicious pasta like pappardelle. This could also work on polenta or rice.

I do short ribs in a slow cooker. I completely submerge them in liquid and they cook all day (8 hours minimum) and when I pick them out of the pot they quite literally fall off the bone, soft, tender and tasty. Low and slow (and long) is the way to go.

Tenderness: Beef ribs are known for their tough connective tissues. Boiling them before grilling helps break down these tissues, resulting in more tender meat that's easier to eat. The slow, gentle simmering process allows the collagen in the connective tissue to convert to gelatin, which moistens and softens the meat.

This recipe calls for red wine. I almost always use a chianti when I'm making this dish, but really any bold red wine, such as a cabernet, super Tuscan, or Valpolicella would work well. If you're not able to find beef short ribs, you can opt for beef stew meat or use a 2-3 pound chuck roast cut into cubes.

If you want to cut the meat yourself, get cuts like chuck or flank steak, as per the Bolognese tradition, or even a skirt steak (the diaphragm, practically impossible to find at the butchers). The same goes for pork: choose pieces like the thigh which are fatty and tasty.

I serve the braised short ribs with some beautiful, simply roasted root vegetables – using carrots, red and golden beets, and turnips here, but feel free to throw in whatever you like or have on hand.

Italian Tradition

Ragù is a wonderful topping for a plate of pasta. It goes perfectly with tagliatelle, but it can also be enjoyed with short pasta like penne. Ragù is also a main ingredient in another essential recipe in Italian cuisine, lasagna.

Usually eaten with fresh egg tagliatelle but it used to season other types of pasta as lasagna (with béchamel) or polenta.

The first five ribs of the animal are shorter (hence the term “short ribs”), and the meat around them is more muscular than that around the other ribs. Like other tough cuts of meat, when slow cooked, short ribs break down and become incredibly tender and delicious.

You want liquid to come about a quarter and no higher than half way up the side of the meat. Because of the curvature of the dino ribs, we'll be cooking them on their sides, so they make a crescent in the pan. Then, of course, you must cook them. Cover the pan in which you are braising and put the ribs in the oven.

Can you cook short ribs too long? ›

If they aren't braised long enough, they can be super tough to eat; if they are cooked too long, the meat will just fall apart. The key to preparing short ribs is to cook them until they reach a point that is just before they would fall apart.

The reason you would boil ribs before cooking them is simple. This process helps tenderize the ribs and makes them more juicy. It not only shortens the cooking time significantly, but it also helps make the meat far easier to chew.

Short Ribs & Braising:

You don't need any special equipment to braise ribs. First, brown or sear the ribs at a high temperature then cook them in liquid at a lower temperature for a longer period of time. This is an excellent cooking method for tougher cuts of meat that will become tender after prolonged cooking!

Start by trimming the fat down to the silverskin, then with your sharp knife remove it. There is also a heavy membrane on the backside of the beef ribs. It's best to leave this membrane on as the meat may fall off the bone during the cooking process. Once you cook the ribs, the membrane is easily cut away.

Ragù is a meat-based sauce, typically served with pasta. Traditionally, pieces of meat (often beef, pork, game, or even horse), are cooked on a low heat in a braising liquid (this is usually tomato or wine-based) over a long period of time.

One of the most popular and beloved recipes in Italy, ragù is a sauce made from tomatoes and ground or chopped meat, which is cooked for a long time. It is normally made with tomato sauce, celery, onions and carrots, ground beef and/or pork, some white wine and aromatic herbs like basil and bay leaf.

Beef ragu—a traditional Italian dish—is a slow-simmered sauce made with beef, tomatoes, pasta, etc. Many newer ragu recipes use sambal oelek or anchovy paste to help build flavor, so I've used harissa, but feel free to replace with 1/2 teaspoon crushed red pepper or 1 teaspoon fennel seeds or omit.

Slowly simmered Braised Beef Ragu is the ultimate Italian-inspired comfort food! Rich beef chuck becomes meltingly tender as it slowly braises with veggies, fresh herbs, Italian tomatoes, & red wine, creating a hearty beef ragu sauce.