During this time of the year, I feel like eating heartier meals, especially for dinner. It must be the colder weather. A warm, hearty dinner to warm my belly sounds so appealing. I feel like my Slow Cooker Beef Ragu is perfect meal for chilly evenings. It’s comfort food and it makes me feel cozy. It’s also fantastic with a glass of red wine and some crusty bread. Yes please!

There is a little bit of work involved in making this recipe until all the ingredients are thrown in the slow cooker and I can walk away. There is some chopping of veggies, mincing of garlic and searing of beef involved. It’s all so worth it. A note: to cut down on work, you may be able to buy already chopped veggies at your local grocery store for convenience.

After cooking for about 6 hours, I start checking to see if the beef shreds apart easily with forks. If the beef still seems a little tough and won’t shred easily, I’ll let it cook longer. When the beef is done it should be easy to shred with two forks. Don’t overcook the beef or it’ll turn to mush. I wouldn’t cook this Slow Cooker Beef Ragu any longer than 8 hours.

When the beef is ready to shred, I remove it from the slow cooker and shred it on a cutting board. If I try to shred it in the slow cooker, liquid splatters everywhere. Once I’ve shredded the beef on the cutting board, I add it back into the slow cooker and stir everything together. I, of course, taste a bite of my Slow Cooker Beef Ragu before serving…. because it smells so good that my mouth has been watering during the shredding process and I can’t wait any longer! This is also necessary so I can decide if I need to add more salt and/or pepper.

I made a kitchen faux pas that I want to share with you; when I made my Slow Cooker Beef Ragu, I did not place the fresh herbs that I used (rosemary and thyme) in a cheesecloth bundle. This is called a bouquet garni. It is a bundle of herbs wrapped in cheesecloth and tied with kitchen string that is added to dishes like ragu during cooking. If you’ve watched the movie Bridgette Jones’s Diary (one of my favs), the soup Bridgette was cooking turned blue because she wrapped her bouquet garni with blue string. Because I did not place my herbs in a nice cheesecloth bouquet, the leaves cooked off their stems and I had to fish the leaves and stems out of my Slow Cooker Beef Ragu before serving. 😀 Note to self: remember the bouquet garni or else spend too much time fishing for leaves and stems. See my mistake below and then imagine how much time it took me to fish leaves and stems out of my ragu:

Anyhoo, I know some people like their ragu over polenta but I prefer mine over pappardelle noodles. I’m a big fan of pasta. A nice thick wide noodle, like pappardelle or another type of noodle that holds a meat sauce well like Casarecce (narrow, twisted rolled tube), Paccheri (wide short tubes) or Fusili (spirals) would work well with my Slow Cooker Beef Ragu.

Once you have plated the Slow Cooker Beef Ragu on top of a bed of noodles, or if you prefer, polenta, then top it with some grated Parmigiano Reggiano and chopped fresh parsley. Enjoy!

Print Recipe

Slow Cooker Beef Ragu

Ingredients

• 2.5 lbs chuck roast quartered
• Salt and freshly ground black pepper
• ¼ cup olive oil
• 1 cup onion chopped
• 3 cloves of garlic minced
• 2 medium carrots diced small
• 2 celery stalks diced small
• 1 tablespoon all-purpose flour
• 1 cup red wine
• 2 tablespoons tomato paste
• 1 28 oz can crushed tomatoes
• 2 beef boullion cubes or equivalent Better Than Boullion Beef Base (my preference)
• 2 sprigs fresh Rosemary
• 3 sprigs fresh thyme
• 1 lb pappardelle pasta
• Chopped parsley to serve
• Freshly grated Parmigiano Reggiano to serve

Instructions

• Pat beef dry and sprinkle with salt and pepper. Over high heat in a large fry pan, heat 1 tablespoon of olive oil. Add the beef and sear each piece on all sides until browned, around 3-4 minutes in total. Once browned remove the meat from the pan and add to the slow cooker. You do not want to cook the meat through.
• Turn the stove down to medium low and add remaining olive oil to the large fry pan. Add garlic, onion, carrots and celery and sauté slowly for 5 minutes. Add flour and stir for 1 minute. Remove from heat and add to the slow cooker.
• Turn the heat up on the stove to medium. Add the wine to the fry pan. Scrape the bottom of the pan (deglaze). Cook the wine for about 5 minutes or until there is no more alcohol smell. The wine may reduce a bit. Once done, add to the slow cooker.
• Add tomato paste, tomatoes and boullion cubes OR Better Than Boullion Beef Base to the slow cooker. Stir everything together.
• Turn the slow cooker on low.
• Wrap the rosemary and thyme in cheesecloth and secure with non-colored kitchen string (bouquet garni). Drop into the Ragu mixture and stir.
• Cook in the slow cooker on low for 6 – 8 hours (it took about 7 hours for me). The beef should easily shred apart with 2 forks but not be mushy.
• When you can shred the beef, turn off the slow cooker. Remove the beef from the slow cooker and shred. Add the shredded beef back into the sauce in the slow cooker and stir until everything is mixed together. Take out the cheese cloth with rosemary and thyme.
• Serve on a bed of papparedelle pasta and top with chopped Italian Parsley and Parmigiano Reggiano. Enjoy!