If you have a family of boys then you will understand me when I say that they always need feeding. This is a dish that will keep them happy. And in our house it’s a dish I often make in the colder months and serve with short pasta, such as penne.

It smells lovely in the kitchen while it’s cooking in autumn and winter and it’s one of those dishes that you prep and leave and it will happily simmer away for you and gently cook the meat and vegetables until the flavours are released and it becomes into a hearty dark red-brown sauce of scrumptiousness!

And once you’ve got the hang of it, you can double your quantities, freeze it for those nights when you’re too busy to cook but you still want to eat something homemade.

Ingredients

• 500g good quality minced beef (macinato scelto per ragù)
• 1/2 onion
• 1 carrot
• 1 small stick of celery
• From the pantry:
• 1 stock
• 1 tin of chopped tomatoes
• 1/2 tbsp tomato purée
• 1 tbsp stock in powder or one stock cube in 200ml hot water
• 1 bay leaf
• 1 tsp garlic powder
• salt and pepper
• 1 glass of red wine ( I used “Le Ginestre” Cabernet DOC Colli Euganei was
• inexpensive and pairs well)

How to Make it

Finely chop the carrot, celery and onion. I use a mini robot processor to do this because I loathe the smell of onions on my hands for the rest of the day. And I want to protect my manicure.

Put your pan onto a medium-high heat and once it’s warmed up add the meat and the chopped vegetables at the same time. The fat already present in the meat will come out and begin to fry the vegetables for you. Work with a wooden spatula to break down the meat and make sure nothing sticks to the bottom of the pan. I also shake over my garlic powder at this point so that it can give its fragrance to the dish.

After about 5-10 minutes the meat should change colour and the vegetables
will start to break down and reduce. When it starts to stick to the bottom of the
pan, add the glass of wine. It will hiss at it hits the pan and will steam up. Stir
everything with your spatula and after one minute the steam should
evaporate along with the alcohol, giving your dish the colour and depth you
want.

Add the stock diluted in 200mll of hot water, the tomatoes, the tomato
concentrate, salt and pepper and the bay leaf.

Once it reaches boiling point, turn down the heat and put the timer on for one
hour and a half. You can check up every now and then and give it a stir and
then leave it to simmer.

When the alarm beeps, take it off the heat and leave to cool (I put my pan
outside on the balcony) and refrigerate until the next day. Never eat your
ragù the same day. It needs time to develop its rich taste. Trust me.

Finally you’re ready to go: cook 100-150g of pasta per person. Follow the
instructions on the packet and remember to always salt your water. In the photo I made 90g of pasta and that was enough of me. You can add a grating of Grana Padano or Parmigiano Reggiano cheese and you’re good to go!

This is a favourite dish in our family. What’s yours?