There is something so luxurious about a slow cooked pasta sauce and beef cheeks lend themselves so well to a beautiful rich ragu. I think the word cheeks scare a lot of homecooks but there's really nothing to worry about, when cooked properly beef cheeks are melt in the mouth and absolutely delicious, not to mention super cheap. Its a great cut of meat for families on a budget. The recipe below is very simple but a real showstopper, we always get excited when this is on the menu in our house.
Prep time 15mins
Cooking time 3.5hrs
400g beef cheeks
2tbsp olive oil
100g smoked bacon lardons
1 onion, diced
1 carrot, diced
2 garlic cloves, crushed
1/4tsp salt
1/4tsp ground black pepper
2tsp dried oregano
2tsp dried basil
200ml red wine
1tbsp tomato puree
400g passata
1tsp granulated sugar
1tbsp Worcestershire sauce
300ml beef stock
Cooked pasta
2tsp fresh basil, chopped
Few grinds of black pepper
1. Pre heat your oven to 160c
2. Cut your beef cheek into quarters and season all over with salt and pepper.
3. In a deep pan add the oil and on a medium to high heat add the beef cheeks and brown on all sides, remove and set aside.
4. In the same pan, turn the heat down to medium and add a drizzle more olive oil and brown the lardons.
5. Once the lardons are nicely cooked and just starting to crisp add the diced onion and carrot and gently sauté for 10mins, stirring often.
6. Now the onions and carrots are tender add the garlic, dried herbs, salt and pepper, add a splash of water if the pan is to dry, and cook until the herbs are really fragrant, about 5 mins.
7. Pour in the red wine and turn the heat up and allow to cook for 5 mins.
8. Now add all of the rest of the ingredients, so the tomato puree, passata, sugar, Worcestershire sauce, beef stock and the beef cheeks, let it bubble away for 15mins and then transfer to and oven proof casserole dish and cover with a lid. Please note the beef cheeks should be fully covered in liquid for them to become really soft, so just top up with some hot water if its not quite covered.
9. Pop in the oven for 2 and a half hours, checking half way through to make sure the liquid isn't to low.
10. After the cooking time remove carefully from the oven, the meat should be soft and falling apart. Transfer the ragu back into a large saucepan (be very carful as the liquid will be hot, use a ladle) and turn the heat to medium high and allow the cooking liquor to reduce until its a nice thick sauce consistancy. Have a taste and adjust the seasoning if need be.
11. Serve with your cooked pasta and sprinkle with some fresh basil and black pepper.
Slow cooker adjustments:
I prefer to brown some ingredients off before I put it in to the slow cooker as it add more flavour so I would complete all of the steps up to and including number 7 and then transfer everything to a slow cooker but if you prefer you don't have to and can just simply put everything in to your slow cooker and turn it on to high for 30mins to bring everything up to temperature and then down to low for another 3.5hrs.
If you don't have a high setting the just cook on low for 4.5hours.
Once the slow cooking time is up the meat should be falling apart, at this point we need to thicken the sauce, you can either do this by turning your slow cooker on to high and reduce with the lid off for about 45mins or transfer the rage carefully to a large saucepan and reduce over a high heat, this will take around 20-30mins.
