Give us a gloomy, rainy weekend with no plans, and you’ll usually find us making homemade pasta and a beef ragu or meat sauce. On one of our first few dates, Marcelo invited me over to his family’s house to make ravioli. I thought it would be a fun date night. Little did I know, we were about to crank out pounds on pounds of fresh ravioli for about 20 ravenous Argentinians. He had me rolling meatballs for sauce, filling ravioli, rolling dough. I worked up a sweat, and was seriously exhausted after 2 hours of this. His mother chastised him, saying he was crazy for putting me to work like this – and that surely I would not stick around.

Fast forward about 7 years later … and I did stick around. Mostly because those ravioli were damn delicious; but honestly, even though it was hard work, I remember that being the first time I really worked hard in a kitchen. I remember feeling proud of the final product and excited when his family raved about how good the ravioli were. It’s one of the moments, I think, that really started to get me more into food and cooking.

There is something fun about spending a day in the kitchen, working on the perfect dish. The temperatures have cooled off a bit with all the rain, and a nice bowl of tomato-y, meaty pasta started sounding great. Homemade pasta is honestly not as hard to make as I think many people assume. It has very basic ingredients – flour, eggs, and salt; and while a pasta machine helps simplify the process, it is not completely necessary to produce a good bowl of pasta.

If you love making homemade pasta as much as we do, I can’t recommend the Kitchen Aid Stand Mixer and Pasta Attachments enough (not sponsored!). They seriously cut down a ton on time and give your arms a break. If you’re not yet up for the pasta making – both Whole Foods and Central Market have some excellent fresh pastas that would go perfect with this ragu! If you live in Dallas, you should check out Jimmy’s Italian Food store. They have excellent imported pastas and it’s such a fun place to wander around.

Good quality ingredients are key with Italian cuisine so we recommend buying high quality canned tomatoes (we like Cento), using fresh herbs, and good meat. Time is also important. I’m not the most patient person – but a good beef ragu needs time to cook slowly. I would allow it to cook for at least 2 hours; it’s worth it.

Serve the fresh pasta with the beef ragu and top it with grated Parmigiano Reggiano and drizzle of aged balsamic vinegar. Pair with a big bodied red wine such as a Barolo, Amarone, or a Bordeaux. Worth all the work, I promise.

Homemade Pappardelle with Beef Ragu

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Prep Time 20 minutes mins

Cook Time 3 hours hrs

Total Time 3 hours hrs 20 minutes mins

Course Main Dish

Cuisine Italian

Servings 4 Servings

Ingredients

  

Beef Ragu

• 1 Tablespoon olive oil
• 2 Pounds Boneless Ribeye Can also use beef chuck or short ribs
• 1 Medium yellow onion Finely Diced
• 3 Cloves garlic Minced
• 1 Cup Beef Broth
• 1/2 Cup Red Wine
• 2 Tablespoons Balsamic Vinegar
• 2 Tablespoons Tomato Paste
• 14 ounces Crushed Tomato
• 28 ounces Canned Peeled Whole Tomatoes
• 2 Bay Leaves
• 3-4 Sprigs parsley
• 3-4 Springs thyme
• 1 Handful Basil
• 1 Tablespoon granulated sugar
• 1/4 Cup Heavy Cream
• Salt and pepper to taste
• 1/4 Cup Grated Parmesan Cheese For topping

Fresh Papparadelle

• 1 Pound All-purpose flour Sifted
• 6 Egg Yolks
• 2 eggs
• 1.5 Teaspoons Kosher salt

Instructions

 

Beef Ragu

• In a large dutch oven, heat olive oil over medium heat.
• Season ribeye with salt and pepper and add to pot. Sear for about 3-4 minutes on each side, or until browned. Remove from the pot and set aside to rest.
• There should be a good amount of drippings in the pot released from the meat, but if not, add a bit more olive oil to the pot. Now, add in the diced onion. Cook for about 2-3 minutes or until the onions are softened slightly.
• Add the minced garlic and cook for another 2-3 minutes.
• Next, pour in the beef broth to help deglaze the pot. Stir gently and continue to simmer.
• Combine red wine, tomato paste, and balsamic vinegar into small bowl and whisk until well-blended. Add this mixture to the broth and simmer for about 5 minutes.
• Next, add in crushed tomatoes. Then, one by one, crush the whole tomatoes by hand, directly in the sauce. This allows some larger bits of tomato into the sauce.
• Add in sugar, herbs, bay leaves, and salt and pepper to taste. Return steak back into the sauce.
• Cover pot and let simmer over low-medium heat for about 2-3 hours or until meat is very tender.
• Once the meat is easy to prick with a fork, and starting to fall apart easily, remove the steak from the sauce and place into large bowl. Using 2 forks, gently shred meat. Remove all the herbs and bay leaves from the sauce and discard.
• Return the shredded meat to sauce, and add 1/4 cup heavy cream. This helps to emulsify the sauce. Let simmer another 15-20 minutes before serving.

Pappardelle

• Combine 1/2 teaspoon of salt and sifted flour into a large mixing bowl and create a small well in the middle.
• Add egg yolks and 2 eggs into well and slowly, using a fork, add flour into the center of the well. Continue doing so until almost all the flour has been mixed into the egg mixture. This can also be done using a stand mixer.
• Once most of the flour has been incorporated, turn the dough out onto a floured surface and gently knead the dough into 2 rectangular blocks.
• Cover the dough with plastic wrap and let rest for about 1 hour at room temperature.
• Remove plastic and turn out the dough onto a floured surface. Using a rolling pin, start to roll the dough out into a long rectangular shape. It may be easier to cut the 2 blocks into 4 smaller blocks before starting to roll them.
• The next step is easiest with a pasta maker, but can be done by hand. If using a pasta maker, start rolling the dough into the machine to create a pasta sheet. It will take several times through the machine to achieve the desired thickness. We slowly increase the settings to create a thinner and thinner dough. Once you have the desired thickness of your pasta sheet, return to a floured surface. If doing by hand, simply continue rolling dough out with the rolling pin until you reach desired thickness, preferably as thin as you can get it.
• Using a sharp knife, hand cut your noodles to the desired width. We prefer wider noodles, about 1 inch wide. Make sure to keep the pasta well floured to prevent sticking. Continue until you have used all of the dough.
• Heat large pot with water and add about 1 tablespoon kosher salt. Bring to a boil.
• Cook pasta until al dente, about 3 minutes. Drain.
• Serve with ragu and top with freshly grated parmesan and chopped basil.