Tender slow-cooked short ribs in a tomato red wine marinara sauce served over buttery gnocchi makes for a hearty delicious ragu. Melt in your mouth short ribs packed with bold flavors.

Short ribs can be a bit intimidating to cook but don’t worry this recipe makes for perfectly cooked melt in your mouth short ribs. BUY QUALITY SHORT RIBS! We can’t stress this enough. Short ribs are not cheap, they are quite an expensive cut of meat so be sure to carefully chose good quality ones. Buy boneless, to ensure your not paying for the extra weight of the bone and go for ones that have little marbling and less fat. We like the thick short ribs with just enough marbling for a bit of natural fat and flavor. This limits the amount of fat that is going to melt in your sauce, it can leave a layer of fat floating at the top which you do not want and I find the bone-in short ribs leave you with very little meat for your sauce.

Short ribs taste best when they are stewed and slow cooked for hours. The moisture from the braising liquid helps soften the connective tissues of the short ribs. The cooking starts with searing your short ribs on high heat which creates that crispy browned exterior crust and then submerging the short ribs into your cooking liquid for at least 3 hours.

How can you tell the short ribs are done? Insert your fork into the short rib and twist, the meat short break a part right away and shred easily. Don’t force it, if the short ribs are tough and don’t shred at all, continue to cook them for an additional half hour to an hour.

I find the sauce and the short ribs taste even better the next day when the flavour have really blended together and the meat becomes extremely tender.

Tender melt-in-your-mouth beef is so comforting, perfect for those cold winter days. The ragu is rich in flavor, a perfect dish to serve over the holidays. The ragu can be made ahead of time and kept in the fridge for up to a week and stored in the freezer for up to 3 months.

Served this on any kind of pasta even over potatoes and you’ve got yourself a delicious dinner everyone will love.

Cheers!

@Thecommunalfeast

Print Recipe

SLOW-COOKED SHORT RIB RAGU

Tender slow-cooked short ribs in a tomato red wine marinara sauce served over buttery gnocchi makes for a hearty delicious ragu. Melt in your mouth short ribs packed with bold flavors.

Prep Time20 minutes mins

Cook Time3 hours hrs 30 minutes mins

Total Time3 hours hrs 50 minutes mins

Course: Dinner

Servings: 5 -6

Author: the communal feast

Ingredients

• 1 lb boneless beef short ribs
• 1 small yellow onion diced small
• 2 celery stalks diced small
• 1 ½ cups cremini mushrooms thinly sliced
• 2 carrots washed and peeled, diced small
• 1 cup full-bodied red wine
• ½ cup beef broth
• 1 jar basil marinara
• 1 28 oz can San Marzano tomatoes and juices
• 2 tbsp Dijon mustard
• ¼ cup flour
• 1 tbsp nutmeg
• 1 tbsp cinnamon
• 3 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
• 5 garlic cloves minced
• 5 large stems of parsley
• 5 sprigs of thyme
• 2 sprigs of rosemary
• 1 tbsp dried oregano
• Salt & pepper
• 1 tbsp crushed red pepper flakes
• For serving:
• Gnocchi
• Butter
• Fresh chopped basil
• Freshly grated parmesan cheese

Instructions

• 1. Pre heat oven to 325 degrees
• 2. Trim off any excess fat from the short ribs
• 3. In a medium bowl, combine the flour, cinnamon, nutmeg and ¼ tsp of kosher salt. Pat the short ribs dry, and coat in the flour mixture. Set aside.
• 4. Heat 1½ tbsp of extra virgin olive oil in a large dutch oven over medium high heat.
• 5. Add the short ribs to the dutch oven. Sear until golden brown, about 3-4 minutes. Flip and repeat on the other side.
• 6. Once seared, remove short ribs and set aside on a plate.
• 7. Lower the heat to medium, add a splash of olive oil and add in the onions, carrots, celery and mushrooms. Cook until soft, about 4-5 minutes. Season with salt.
• 8. Deglaze the dutch oven with the red wine. Simmer over medium heat for 7 minutes.
• 9. Add in the beef broth, the San Marzano tomatoes, crushing each tomato over the Dutch
  oven with your hands., Dijon mustard, and marinara sauce. Tie the herbs together- parsley, rosemary and thyme and add into the pot. Next season with oregano, crushed red pepper, and ¼ tsp kosher salt. Stir to combine.
• 10. Place the short ribs back into the dutch oven, cover in the sauce and bring to a boil. Reduce heat and simmer for 10 minutes.
• 11. Cover the pot and cook in the oven at 325 degrees for 3 hours, stirring the sauce every 30 minutes. Short ribs are done when you can shred them easily with a fork, keep cooking if the short ribs don’t easily shred.
• 12. Remove the short ribs from the sauce and place onto a baking sheet. Shred the short
  ribs, removing any large chunks of fat, and return to the pot. Let the sauce simmer on the stove top, skimming any fat off the top.
• 13. For serving, cook the gnocchi or desired pasta according to instructions, toss the gnocchi in butter and place into serving bowl. Spoon the meat and sauce over the gnocchi, garnish with freshly grated parmesan and fresh chopped basil.
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