Whenever I am halfway through making my own pasta, I begin to question my life choices and wonder if it's all worth it. Then I get to the end and sample the final product and never regret it!
It's starting to get super icy here in Melbourne so there's something amazing about smelling this ragu doing its thing in the slow cooker all afternoon, before sitting down to a rich, hearty dinner in front of the footy. I'm based in Melbourne now but I'm Perth born and raised, so those of you who know me will know I'm all about West Coast! Who finally shrugged off their post-covid slump and came back after a three-game low, making this ragu taste all the better!
Serves 4
Prep: 1 hour
Cook: 4 hours (or 8 hours on if your slow cooker does low, mine only has a 4-hour setting)
Ingredients
For the pasta:
200g plain flour, plus extra to dust
2 eggs
1/2 tsp salt
For the ragu:
1kg chuck steak
1 tbsp plain flour
Salt and pepper
1 brown onion, diced
2 cloves garlic, crushed
1 tbsp dried Italian herbs (parsley, basil, thyme, rosemary)
1 cup Shiraz
400g can crushed tomatoes
1 cup beef stock
2 tbsp tomato paste
1 tbsp sugar
Grated parmesan, to serve
Method
Start with the sauce, as it will need to be in the slow cooker for a few hours. Place the flour, salt and pepper in a plastic bag. Add the chuck and shake the bag to coat.
Heat oil in a large, heavy-bottomed frying pan. Add the chuck and brown for a few minutes on both sides. Transfer to the bowl of the slow cooker.
Add a little more oil to the frying pan if it's looking a little dry. Add the onion and cook for three minutes until softened. Add the garlic and cook for a further two minutes.
Sprinkle over the dry herbs and stir.
Add in the wine and cook, scraping the bottom on the pan to get all the good bits off!
Once the wine has reduced by half, add the tomatoes, stock, tomato paste and sugar and bring to a simmer. Add to the slow cooker and set it for four hours high or eight hours low. Once it's about an hour off (or half an hour if you're a pasta making pro - it always takes me ages!) get the pasta going.
To make the pasta, sift the flour and salt together in a large bowl. Whisk the eggs together in a small bowl, make a well in the middle of the salt and pour the eggs in. Mix together - the consistency will be fairly dry, which is fine. Turn out the dough onto a lightly floured surface and knead for a few minutes. Divide into four equal balls and roll each one flat ready for the pasta roller.
My pasta maker has numbers to indicate the width of the roller. Smaller is wider, so hopefully this will be clear if yours is designed differently! Take the first portion of pasta dough and feed it through the rollers set to 1. Change the setting to 3 and feed it through again. Repeat at 7 and 9, until your dough is long and very thin. Switch to the cutting side and feed it through the tagliatelle/fettuccini cutter. Repeat with remaining dough balls.
Heat a large pot of salted water on the stove. Once boiling, add the pasta and cook for around two minutes or until it is all floating on the surface. Drain, reserving 1/4 cup starchy pasta water (just in case you need it for the sauce).
With two forks, shred the chuck inside the slow cooker. Add the cooked pasta and toss everything together, using a splash of the pasta water to loosen it up if need be. Divide between four bowls and serve with grated parmesan.
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