Beef and Sweet Italian Sausage Ragu

Chad and I had our friends Amy, Donovan, Chris, and Christy for dinner last night, and we had not seen these folks for a long time. So that we could maximize QT with our friends, we decided to make something that would be completed before the first guest arrived. We wanted to avoid having to do too much cooking while our friends were over.

Although it is October, it is still 86 degrees in Memphis! Despite the heat, I am convinced that it is Fall, and therefore it is time for warm plates of comfort food. Wishful thinking, I know. Maybe if I start cooking up butternut squash soups and pots of gumbo, the cold weather will arrive? Anyway, we finally decided on this delicious ragu, perfect for fall and winter. The sauce takes a few hours to cook, so it is definitely not a weeknight dish. That said, it is even better the day after you make it, and it freezes beautifully.

We originally had planned to serve this ragu over homemade pappardelle, but decided on the much easier polenta, again, to maximize QT. The pappardelle would have needed to be rolled and cut at the last minute and thrown into the pot just before we were ready to eat. Fun, but not for this occasion. We used stone-ground polenta cooked according to the directions on the package, and we added a little olive oil, black pepper, and freshly grated parmigianno. The polenta did have to be cooked at the last minute, but it is a cinch to make, so it didn't cut into our socializing. Buon Appetito!

Beef and Sweet Italian Sausage Ragu
serves ten

3 pounds sirloin top round steak, cut into 1/2-inch dice
1 bay leaf
1 bottle red wine (we used a 2004 Cotes du Ventoux Rouge), for marinating and also for the sauce
2 pounds sweet italian sausage, removed from its casings
6 cloves of garlic, chopped fine
5 ribs celery, cut to a small dice
2 white onions, diced small
3 carrots, peeled and diced small
5 T butter
3 T olive oil
2 t salt
1 t crushed red pepper flakes
3 28-ounce cans whole tomatoes

Marinate the beef in the bay leaf and red wine just to cover for one hour.

Saute the onion, carrot, celery, garlic, and sausage in olive oil and butter in a large pot over medium heat until the vegetables are soft, about fifteen minutes. Use a wooden spoon to break up the sausage while it is cooking. Season with the salt and crushed red pepper.

Remove the beef from the red wine and discard the wine. Add the beef and bay leaf to the pot and cook over medium-high heat until all of the natural juices have evaporated from the pan. Add the rest of the wine, and cook until the liquid has evaporated, stirring occasionally to ensure that the mixture is not burning to the bottom of the pan.

Add the tomatoes, turn the heat to medium-low, and simmer for 2.5 hours, stirring occasionally, until all of the flavors have concentrated and melded together. Taste for seasoning and add salt if necessary. Serve over polenta or thick pasta, such as pappardelle.

Comments

[Christy]

thanks for the incredible awesome dinner and company! (everyone reading this blog -- MAKE THIS MEAL!) sorry i had to leave early for the little one. let's not take so long to get together next time :)
p.s. last night i made a yummy yummy devils food cake covered in chocolate mint ganache. oooohhhhh! can you say decadent??!