Lamb Ragu

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http://youtube.com/watch?v=RSbo1sGK1e4

This is a delicious ragu, or stew, for Easter and beyond. It uses lamb shoulder, or you could change the meat to beef if you wish. • • Have a go at making your own pasta, to go with the ragu, it’s a fun thing to do and can be made without a pasta machine. This dish works best with a thicker pasta like pappardelle which is hand cut. See my video on making pasta • Making Pasta • If you don't want to make your own pasta you can use a penne, or any chunkier pasta which works best to mop upon all the rich sauce. • I am using some normal pork sausage as that is what I have at the moment so I’ll add some more fennel seed and a bit of crushed chilli and extra garlic. • Ingredients • 2 tbsp olive oil • 800g diced stewing lamb • 2 aromatic sausages (Toulouse/Italian) skins removed, cut into chunks • 1 cooking onion, peeled and sliced • 1 stick celery, washed and diced • 1 carrot, peeled and diced • 2 stalks rosemary • 2 bay leaves • 2 tsp fennel seeds • 1 clove garlic, chopped • 100 ml full bodied red wine • 1 x 500g pack tomato passata • 1 tbsp tomato puree • 1 quantity of basic pasta dough • 50g freshly grated parmesan • Method • • Preheat the oven to 140C/275F/Gas1 • • Heat a non-stick frying pan over a high heat and add a tablespoon of olive oil, when very hot brown the lamb and sausages in batches and transfer to a casserole dish. • • Then add the remaining oil to the frying pan and cook the onion, celery, carrot, rosemary, bay leaves and fennel seeds over a lower heat, to soften the vegetables for 10 minutes. Add the sliced garlic and cook for just a minute. Add to the casserole dish. • • Turn up the heat on the frying pan and deglaze the pan with a little of the red wine. Turn off the heat and add to the casserole dish. • • Place the casserole dish over a high heat and add the remainder of the red wine, boil rapidly to almost reduce the red wine away completely. Add the passata, half fill the passata carton with water to rinse it out and add to the casserole dish. Lastly add the tomato puree and stir that in. Make sure the contents have come to the boil and then place covered in the preheated oven for 1 ½ hours • • After 1 hour of cooking prepare the pasta. • • Roll out the pasta as per the recipe, when you have got to large sheets at the thickness for lasagne, dust well with semolina flour, and fold into four. Cut the pasta into 3cm thick ribbons, using a pasta cutter and a rolling pin to keep you straight. • • Bring a large pan of water to the boil with 1 tsp salt. • • Drop in the pasta and cook for 3 minutes. Drain through a colander, keeping some of the cooking water to loosen the casserole sauce if necessary • • Mix the casserole and pasta together carefully and add some of the water if it needs more sauce. • • Serve with some freshly grated parmesan • Serves 4

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