Beef Short Rib Ragu

My grandfather would always make THE BEST beef short rib ragu, which was weird because he was Polish. For years I could never figure out why this Polish guy was so great at making Italian food. One day, when speaking with my mother, a memory came to mind. She began to tell me how the family would drive out to a cabin on the lake in upstate New York and while passing time, the adults would spend the day cooking. She said there were several Italian friends cooking together in the kitchen. Aha! Ragu.

This beef short rib ragu gets it’s flavor from celery, green pepper, carrot and onion sauteed together with mushrooms and slow simmered in a sauce of tomato, red wine, beef broth and, yes, beef short ribs. The beef broth and red wine add a richness to this ragu and help in deglazing the pan, you know scaping up all those yummy brown bits. Large elbow macaroni are a perfect vessel for catching all the goodness of this ragu.

Serve it up with some crusty garlic bread and a nice glass of red wine and you have a comforting dinner for you and your family. Oh..and don’t forget the parmesan, lot’s of parm is a must!

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Beef Short Rib Ragu

Course Main Course

Cuisine Pasta

Keyword beef short ribs, italian, ragu

Prep Time 15 minutes minutes

Cook Time 2 hours hours

Total Time 2 hours hours 15 minutes minutes

Servings 6

Ingredients

• 2 tbsp olive oil
• 1/2 cup carrot chopped
• 1 cup celery chopped
• 1 cup green bell pepper chopped
• 1 cup yellow onion chopped
• 1 cup mushrooms sliced
• 1 tbsp garlic minced
• 3 lb boneless beef short ribs cubed (approx. 1 inch cubes)
• 1/2 cup red wine
• 1 cup beef broth
• 6 cup Prego Traditional spaghetti sauce
• 1 tbsp sugar
• 1 tsp black pepper
• 1 tbsp fresh basil torn
• 1 pinch crushed red pepper flakes

Instructions

• Heat 1 tbsp olive oil in a large pot over medium high heat.  Saute carrot, celery, green bell pepper, onion, mushrooms and garlic until softened, about 3 minutes.  Remove from pot and set aside.
• Season cubed short ribs with salt and pepper. Add remaining 1 tbsp olive oil to pot and working in batches, brown cubes of short ribs over medium high heat. When batch is browned, remove to a bowl and continue to brown remaining.
• Add red wine and beef broth, scraping up browned bits from bottom of pot. Add browned short rib cubes back to pot together with Prego, sugar, black pepper, fresh basil and red pepper flakes.  Simmer on medium low for about 2 hours or until short ribs are fork tender.
• Serve with large elbow macaroni that is cooked according to package directions. Garnish with freshly grated Parmesan cheese.