House Ragu

Ragu is Italian meat sauce, and for a couple of years I’ve been making ragu a la Milanese for my family. We have it at least every other week, year-round. It’s hearty and versatile, and once you’ve had it, you’ll never want jar sauce again.

The secret to an old-world meat sauce comes down to time and the tomatoes. This recipe takes very little time to prepare but gets cooked for up to three hours. Slowly cooking the sauce in this way allows all the flavors to get extracted and meld together. It’s how your Nonna would have done it. It’s how you should do it too.

As far as tomatoes go, you should use San Marzano tomatoes. You may not have access to fresh ones (I grow them, so in the summer I do), but there are canned versions that are very good. You should get imported San Marzano tomatoes if you can. I have tried some domestic canned brands and they don’t measure up. My favorite so far is Cento. It comes in regular and organic versions in 28 oz. cans.

You begin by making a mirepoix (a combination of finely diced onion, carrots, and celery), and frying those in olive oil. You add beef and pork, then blitz the canned tomatoes in the blender until smooth, adding it to the pot. You add a little wine to it and reduce. Then you cover and simmer for 90 minutes to 2 hours. I add a little anchovy paste as well, just to get some umami in there, and salt, of course. No herbs, no garlic, just simple, and the taste is amazing.

Here’s the full recipe.

Ragu a la Milanese

Brian Gardner

Delicious and simple meat sauce for pasta, potatoes, rice

Print Recipe

Prep Time 20 minutes mins

Course Main Course

Cuisine Italian

Servings 10

Equipment

• large pot
• blender

Ingredients

  

• 1 onion large
• 2 carrots
• 2-3 ribs celery
• 2-3 tbsp extra virgin olice oil
• 2 lbs ground beef 85% lean
• 1 lb ground pork
• 2 28 oz cans San Marzano peeled tomatoes blended smooth
• 3/4 cup red wine
• 1 tbsp anchovy paste (optional)
• 1 tsp chili flakes (optional)

Instructions

 

Make the mirepoix

• Cut up the onion, celery, and carrots into blendable pieces
  
• Chop them in the blender
  
• Heat 2-3 tbsp olive oil to the large pot, and fry the mirepoix for a few minutes
  

Add the meat and brown

• Add the ground pork and beef to the mirepoix, and brown on medium high heat until all the meat looks cooked.
  

Add the tomatoes

• Blend the tomatoes until they're smooth, and add them to the meat mixture.
  
• Add the wine, and get to a boil, then reduce to a simmer and hold it there for 30 minutes to reduce the sauce.
  

Final simmer

• Add a tbsp or so of anchovy paste, taste for salt and add as needed, then cover and simmer on low for 90 minutes to 2 hours. Add chili flakes if you want just a little bite.
• Stir every now and again during the final step, tasting each time, and adjust salt. I find the final flavor doesn't appear until the end. See notes.
  
• Serve over pasta, potatoes, rice, anything. You can add Parmigiano Reggiano if you like, but we prefer it simple and plain most of the time. Buon appetito!

Notes

My family is a mix of gluten-free, keto, and whatever. I often prepare three bases for the sauce, but it tastes great in all of them. My preferred pasta for this dish is linguine since its width catches the sauce very well. 

When you’re salting and tasting the sauce throughout the cook, the goal is to add just enough salt to cancel the sharpness of the tomato and bring out the flavor of the meat. When the back of your pallet says “meaty” instead of “acidic,” you’ve reached it. 

Don’t drain any fat from this recipe, like after cooking the meat. That’s your flavor you’re pitching. If you want less fatty, get leaner meat. 

Keyword meat sauce, pasta sauce, ragu

As always, I welcome your comments. Enjoy!