Some Sundays the best thing you can do is brown some mince, pour in a glass of red, and let the pot get on with it. This ragù asks for twenty minutes of attention and then two hours of patience — and rewards you with a sauce that tastes like you stood over it the whole time.
Make a big batch. It freezes beautifully, and like most things with wine in them, it’s even better the day after.
- Reach for
- a dry Italian red — Sangiovese, Chianti or Montepulciano. Anything you’d pour with the meal.
- How much
- 250ml (a large glass).
- What it’s doing
- it deglazes the browned soffritto and mince, then reduces into the tomato for savoury depth and a glossy, rounded finish.
- No open bottle?
- 200ml extra stock + 1 tbsp red wine vinegar. Workable — but the wine is what makes it taste slow-cooked.
Ingredients
Serves 6
- 2 tbsp olive oil
- 100g (3½ oz) pancetta or smoked bacon, finely diced
- 1 onion, finely diced
- 1 carrot, finely diced
- 1 celery stick, finely diced
- 3 garlic cloves, crushed
- 500g (1 lb 2 oz) beef mince (or half beef, half pork)
- 2 tbsp tomato purée (paste)
- 250ml (1 cup) dry red wine — the glass that does the work
- 1 x 400g tin chopped tomatoes
- 300ml (1¼ cups) beef stock
- 1 bay leaf
- 1 parmesan rind (optional)
- Pinch of sugar; salt and black pepper
- To serve: pappardelle, grated parmesan, basil
Method
-
Heat the oil in a heavy pan and cook the pancetta until golden. Add the onion, carrot and celery and soften gently for 10 minutes, then stir in the garlic for 1 minute.
-
Turn up the heat and add the mince. Brown it properly, breaking it up, until deeply coloured.
Don’t rush this — let the mince catch and brown rather than stew in its own liquid. That colour is the backbone of the sauce.
-
Stir in the tomato purée and cook for 2 minutes until darkened.
-
Pour in the red wine and scrape the base of the pan. Let it bubble and reduce by half, about 5 minutes.
Reducing the wine now cooks off its sharpness and concentrates it before the long simmer.
-
Add the chopped tomatoes, stock, bay and parmesan rind. Bring to a gentle simmer.
-
Cook low and slow, lid ajar, for 1½–2 hours, stirring now and then, until rich and thick.
A bare simmer keeps it silky; a hard boil makes it greasy.
-
Season with salt, pepper and a pinch of sugar. Toss through cooked pappardelle with a little pasta water; finish with parmesan and basil.
Use the rest
Got a final splash in the bottle? Stir a final splash of red into the sauce just before serving for a fresh lift — or freeze it in an ice-cube tray for the next pan you deglaze.
Pour alongside: the rest of the bottle. Make ahead: it improves overnight and freezes for up to 3 months.