Ragu is one of my favourite things to cook, its easy and all you need to do is the prep then you can shove it in the oven and three hours. Also the flavours you get from slow cooking the meat are just incredible. I think this would be at the top of my list if I had to pick my last meal. I used venison as its in season but beef shin worked wonderful too. I added a marrow bone into the sauce when I cooked it for extra flavour. also I always scrape off the bits stuck to the pan edges, trust me that is where all the flavour is you don’t want to loose that. this dish is great with any pasta, tagliatelle, spaghetti, penne what ever you have. its the perfect dish for this time of year when its cold but to be honest I cook it all year around as I love it so much. this is also the meat sauce I use in lasagne.

recipe

• venison shoulder or beef shin approx 450g
• 6 rashers of smoked bacon
• 1 brown onion
• 1 celery
• 1 carrot
• 1 small leek
• 2 large Portobello mushrooms
• 3 cloves of garlic crushed
• 200ml red wine
• 200ml demi glace or beef stock
• 1 tin of tomatoes
• 4 tbsp. tomato paste
• 2 tbsp. brown sugar
• bouquet garni made with rosemary, sage, thyme and a bay left
• 1 marrow bone

first you need to prep so thinly slice the onion and place in a bowl then grate the carrot and really thinly slice the celery, leek and mushrooms. you can whiz it in a processor if you feeling lazy put this in another bowl the cut the bacon into small chunks with some kitchen scissors.

in a big lidded cast iron pan add the meat with a little olive oil and brown on both sides and then remove and set aside while you brown the onions. add some more oil and sautee onions until soft add a splash of balsamic vinegar and a pinch of brown sugar and continue cooking until caramelised then add the bacon and sautee, next add the bowl of carrot ect and sautee, add the garlic then de glaze the pan by adding the wine. cook for 2 minutes before adding the demi glace or stock, tomatoes and puree and sugar and mix well. add the meat back into the pan and add the marrow bone and herbs tired up with bakers twine. then place the lid back on and place in the oven at around 170c 180c for 2 hours then turn down to 160c and cook for anther 45 minutes. after one hour open and stir then at 2 hours you should be able to start tearing the meat into small chunks with two forks. remove the bone and herbs and stir.