The most amazing Slow Cooked Rosemary Lamb Ragu.

#recipetineats #lambragu #lambshoulder
Here is a recipe for a gorgeous lamb ragu! This is such a beautiful way to make the most of rich lamb meat, slow cooked until it's fall-apart tender in a red wine and tomato sauce.
Lamb shoulder is the best here, get boneless then I like to cut it into 3 pieces for ease of handing for browning, and it cooks a little faster too.
Don't rush the step sautéing the soffrito (carrot, onion and celery), taking it slow lets the vegetables sweeten and this is key to the flavour base of the sauce.

Also, note on pasta! Pappardelle is the obvious choice for rich ragus but there are so many other options, especially these days with a greater variety of rustic Italian pasta shapes becoming more widely available! I love capunti paesani (the little canoe shaped pasta, featured in the photos in the post on my website), also rigatoni is ideal, malfadine (the fettuccine with ruffled edges), paccheri (giant tubes), or fusilloni (large spirals). Basically, if the pasta shapes looks like little bits of meat will get caught in them, then it's great for ragu!!
Authenticity note - this is based on traditional Ragù d’Agnello which is a slow cooked Italian lamb ragu made with chopped small pieces of lamb, rather than shredded. I like to shred because I like the way the meat acts like a mop for the sauce. But the ingredients in the sauce - herbs, red wine, tomato, starting with soffrito - are all typically of traditional Ragù d’Agnello recipes.

For a lovely Italian feast, start with a tuna carpaccio, focaccia with olive oil and balsamic for dipping, serve the ragu with a Balsamic Rocket Salad on the side and finish with Tiramisu! Find all these recipes on my website (menu and links is in the post for this ragu) - Nagi x

SLOW COOKED ROSEMARY LAMB RAGU
The rosemary flavour in this is really beautiful!
LAMB BROWNING:
1.25 kg / 2.5 lb boneless lamb shoulder, excess fat trimmed and cut into 3 equal pieces
1 tsp cooking salt / kosher salt + 1/4 tsp black pepper
2 tbsp olive oil
RAGU:
1 onion, finely chopped
2 celery sticks and 1 large carrot, grated using a box grater (discard stringy celery bits)
3 large garlic cloves, finely minced
1 tbsp rosemary, finely chopped (sub 1 tbsp dried)
5 x 10cm/4" sprigs rosemary (sub 1 1/2 tsp dried)
2 bay leaves
1/4 cup tomato paste
1 1/2 cups red wine, any not too sweet or woody (sub 0% wine or chicken stock)
400g/ 14 oz canned crushed tomato
1 1/2 cups chicken stock/broth, low sodium
2 beef stock cubes (bouillon cubes), crumbled (I use OXO) – sub 2 tsp powder, chicken cubes or 1 tsp cooking salt/kosher salt
1/2 tsp black pepper + 3/4 tsp cooking salt / kosher salt
FOR PASTA:
500g / 1 lb pappardelle (pictured), malfadine or rigatoni, capunti paesani (pictured) or other shapes with shredded meat catching abilities!
1 tbsp cooking salt / kosher salt, for pasta cooking water
Parmesan for serving

1. Sprinkle lamb with salt and pepper, brown over high heat in batches in large heavy based pot. Cool pot slightly, reduce to medium and slowly saute onion, garlic, carrot, celery and chopped rosemary for 7 – 8 min until soft and sweet, do not let it brown.
2. Add tomato paste, turn heat up to high and cook off for 1 1/2 min until becomes dark crimson, deglaze with wine, reduce by half. Add 3 rosemary sprigs, tomato, stock, stock cubes, pepper, salt and lamb. Cover, slow cook on LOW 2 – 2.5 hrs until lamb shreds (better marbled lamb shreds faster). Remove and discard rosemary and bay leaves, shred lamb (cut long stringy bits with scissors), return into pot with 2 fresh rosemary sprigs, simmer 30 min lid off to reduce and thicken.
3. Cook pasta until al dente, scoop out 1 cup water, drain, return into pasta pot with 5 cups ragu. Toss with two wooden spoons until pasta is stained red, using reserved pasta water to loosen if needed. Divide between warmed bowls, serve with parmesan.

#recipetineats #lambragu #lambshoulder #lambpasta #slowcookedlamb