Tender short ribs in a tomato red wine sauce with Parmesan mashed potatoes – this hearty slow-cooked short rib ragu is worth the time! Grab the recipe and be sure to check out more of my delicious beef recipes!
In our house, there are two kinds of cooking – weekday and weekend. It’s a simple way to classify, but I find that during the week it’s all about speed and simplicity, while the weekends are the opposite.
With the extra time, I tend to slow down in the kitchen and I don’t get bothered by lots of steps, lots of pans, and lots of time spent in the kitchen. During the week I love short-cuts and quick wins, but I tend to focus more on the process when I cook on the weekends. Cooking from scratch, taking my time with steps, and challenging myself with recipes and ideas I can’t imagine trying to execute during the week after a long day at work. I guess my weekdays are more Rachael Ray, while the weekends are more Julia Child.
Slow-Cooked Short Rib Ragu
This slow-cooked short rib ragu is a great weekend cooking project. It can’t be rushed. There’s no dumping and stirring. It’s not a one-pot wonder. There’s a lot of chopping, dicing, searing, deglazing, simmering, straining, reducing, and shredding and all of it is necessary to develop a rich and complex sauce. Dumping it all in a crock pot for eight hours just won’t produce the same result. You can’t set it and forget it.
The time investment to make this dish is well worth it – one bite of the tender, melt-in-your-mouth beef will make you so happy and so comforted you will try and figure out how to make this a rotating dinner in your weekend line-up.
In an unexpected turn of events, I paired this rich and hearty red wine and tomato beef ragu with some parmesan mashed potatoes, which make a delicious base for all the rich sauce and beef, but it can easily be served with pasta. We also used some leftovers for sandwiches by piling the shredded beef onto soft rolls with a drizzle of sauce. Depending on how many you have to feed, you should get some mileage out of this one making the time investment even more worthwhile.
Some Ingredients You’ll Need
- I used boneless short ribs, which are readily available at most grocery stores.
- Carrots, celery, onion, and garlic are sauteed in the same pan as the short ribs and soak up all the beefy flavor.
- Red wine and tomatoes are the base for the braising liquid.
- I served my ragu with mashed potatoes made with Yukon Gold potatoes, butter, sour cream, and grated Parmesan cheese.
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Slow-Cooked Short Rib Ragu
- Prep Time: 45 minutes
- Cook Time: 3 hours
- Total Time: 3 hours 45 minutes
- Yield: 6 servings 1x
Description
This slow-cooked short rib ragu is hearty and comforting. The short ribs are simmered in the oven until they are fall-apart-tender.
Ingredients
For the Ragu
- 3 pounds boneless short ribs, patted dry and well seasoned on both sides with salt and pepper
- 2 tablespoons vegetable oil
- 3 carrots, diced
- 2 ribs of celery, diced
- 1 onion, diced
- 3 cloves of garlic, minced
- 2 tablespoons tomato paste
- 1 tablespoon flour
- 1 (28-ounce) can whole San Marzano plum tomatoes, including juice
- 2 cups red wine
- 2 cups water
- 6 sprigs fresh parsley
- salt & pepper, to taste47.1g
Parmesan Mashed Potatoes
- 3 Yukon gold potatoes, peeled and cut into quarters
- 1/4 cup unsalted butter
- 1/4 cup sour cream
- 3/4 cup parmesan cheese, grated
- salt and pepper, to taste
- 3 tablespoons chopped parsley (optional for garnish)
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees
- In a large dutch oven or stock pot heat the vegetable oil over medium-high heat. Add the short ribs and brown on all sides until the outside is nicely caramelized. I had to do this in 3 batches so the pan wouldn’t be too crowded. Once browned, remove the ribs from the pot and set aside.
- Reduce the heat to medium and add the diced carrots, celery, and onion. Cook for about ten minutes until the vegetables have softened. Add the garlic and cook for another couple of minutes.
- Stir in the tomato paste until all of the veggies are coated. Sprinkle in the flour and stir to coat all of the vegetables. Continue to cook the mixture for another few minutes.
- Pour in the wine and increase the heat until the pot begins to simmer. Deglaze the pot by scraping the bottom with the spatula to pull up all of the browned bits. Next, add the tomatoes, first squishing each with your hands and all of the juice from the can. Pour in 2 cups of water and stir. Then add the short ribs back to the pot. Be sure they are completely covered by the liquid. If needed, add more water to ensure they are covered. Toss in the parsley (no need to chop it) and give it all a big stir. Bring the pot to a strong simmer (increase the heat if needed) and then cover it, remove it from the heat and transfer it to the preheated oven. Let it simmer in the oven for 2-3 hours, or until the beef is fork tender. For me, it took about 2 1/2 hours – start checking yours at the 2-hour mark.
- Once the beef is fork tender, remove the pot from the oven. Remove the short ribs from the pot and set aside. Using a fine mesh strainer, carefully strain the liquid into a large sauce pot. Press on the solids to extract all of the liquid before discarding them.
- Shred the short ribs before adding them to the sauce.
- Bring the sauce to a simmer over medium-high heat. You want the sauce to thicken and reduce, which will take at least 30 minutes or so. While the sauce is reducing periodically skim the surface to remove the fat.
- While the sauce is reducing, fill a large pot with water and bring it to a boil. Add the potatoes and boil them until they are fork tender (time may vary based on the size of your potato pieces.)
- Drain the potatoes and return them to the cooking pot. Add in the butter and, using a potato masher, mash up all of the potatoes along with the butter. Add the sour cream and parmesan cheese and stir well to combine. Season to taste with salt and pepper.
- Once the potatoes are done the sauce should be ready. Don’t worry if the sauce isn’t ready, you can keep the potatoes warm on the stove until the sauce has thickened.
- Serve the ragu on top of the parmesan mashed potatoes. Garnish with chopped parsley.
Notes
Make it Ahead! You can make the ragu up to one day in advance. Just follow the recipe steps and once you’ve reduced the sauce and added the ribs back in, let it cool and then keep it in the refrigerator. Heat it up in a saucepan on the stove before you serve it. If needed you can thin the sauce with a splash of red wine, water, or beef stock. I don’t recommend making the potatoes ahead – do those the day of!
You can also serve the ragu with pasta or rice.
- Category: Dinner
- Method: Braise
- Cuisine: American
Nutrition
- Serving Size: 1/6 of recipe
- Calories: 1210
- Sugar: 7.8g
- Sodium: 490.5mg
- Fat: 122.9g
- Saturated Fat: 47.1g
- Unsaturated Fat: 45.1g
- Trans Fat: 0.1g
- Carbohydrates: 32.2g
- Fiber: 6.5g
- Protein: 41.2g
- Cholesterol: 205.9mg
Keywords: short rib ragu, braised beef recipe, braised short ribs
The nutrition information in this recipe is an estimate only and was calculated using Nutrifox, an online nutrition calculator.
Trisha says
Just for clarification, do you add the meat back into the sauce before you reduce it? Or reduce the sauce then add the meat back in?!
April Anderson says
You should add the meat back in after you’ve reduced the sauce – hope that helps!
Liz says
Is there a way to print this without the half page ads in the middle of multiple sections of the recipe? Thank you.
April Anderson says
If you click “print recipe” on the recipe card at the end of the post you can print with no ads – hope that helps!
Olivia says
Am I able to double up the recipe? It looks amazing and I want it. to last for a few days. There are 3 adults in the house.
April Anderson says
Yes, you can double it!
kate says
Hi!
Do you have any recommendations for cooking in the pressure cooker… i think i can do the majority of it on sautee and then pressure cook, but wondering the length of time / setting to pressure cook on!
Thanks in advance 🙂
April Anderson says
I haven’t tried it, but you would want to cook them on high pressure for maybe 45 minutes or so? Sorry I can’t give you a better estimate!
Nicole says
This looks wonderful. I am making this tomorrow but all my grocery store had was bone in short ribs. Will this still work? Will it change the cooking time? Any advice will be greatly appreciated.
April Anderson says
Yes, bone-in ribs work, too! You just have to remove the bones after they’re done cooking 🙂 I hope you love it!
John says
Fabulous dish…a labor of love in the kitchen but boy was it worth it! Next time, we’re keeping the vegetables and will use a hand blender to pulverize the veggies into the sauce…too much goodness to let go. Thanks for sharing this recipe; it rocks!
★★★★★
April Anderson says
I’m so glad you loved it – I like your idea to puree the veggies into the sauce!
Shea says
Hi April,
I have made this recipe many times as it is always a hit! I was wondering if I could do all the way up to step 5 the night before and then put it in the fridge until tomorrow and then put it in the oven to cook? Would it taste different?
Thanks!
Shea
★★★★★
April says
Hi Shea! I haven’t tried it, but I think it would work fine. You might want to bring the pot to a simmer on the stove to warm it up before putting it the oven – good luck!
Sharon says
Very good dish. I used a London broil and I put the veggies back in at the end. I did the prep work with the meat and veggies on the stove and then put it all in my slow cooker all day. Absolutely delish! Good comfort food….thanks for sharing!
★★★★★
Maureen R. says
I made this for Sunday dinner. It was easy and delicious! I will be making it again soon. I only made the ribs, not the potatoes.
★★★★★
April says
So glad you liked it!
Dakotah says
I made this for dinner last night. WOW! Delicious! I wished I had company so I could of shared this recipe! I feel the same way too, easy during the week but I love to take my time and enjoy it on the weekends. Have any recommendations for this coming weekend?
★★★★★
April says
Oh, I’m so glad you enjoyed it! It’s one of my favorites 🙂 A couple others you might like – search for Shepherd’s Pie and Chicken Pot Pie – they are a couple others I love making on the weekends 🙂
Christina says
YUMMMMMM!!! I just made this and everyone had a 2nd plate. I went a little light on the salt, as I always do. Next time I will add more while cooking.
★★★★★
April says
That’s so great! So glad you all liked it 🙂
Shannon says
Delicious! Followed the recipe and loved it
★★★★★
Heather says
Not as difficult as I thought it would be to make.
It tastes delicious over pasta with a little ricotta”
Next. Time I am keeping in the veggies.
★★★★★
April says
I love the addition of ricotta – the cool and creamy cheese sounds like a nice complement to the rich beef. Thank you for letting me know!
Beezskis says
This was delicious. I served with pasta and it got rave reviews! Thank you.
Alyssa says
This was amazing! I had family over for Sunday dinner and decided to make this. Everyone kept raving about it! I knew the carrots would be out of this world good, so I left all the veggies as is instead of straining them out. I also didn’t finish reading the recipe and therefore didn’t realize I was supposed to reduce the sauce and skim the fat off, but it came out so delicious anyway! Thanks so much for this recipe!
April says
I’m so glad you liked it!