Meatballs in a rich ragu with homemade pasta
- Prepare
- overnight
- Cook
- over 2 hours
- Serve
- Serves 4–6
- Dietary
- Nut-free
This impressive dish requires a little more effort with slow-cooked beef shin used in the meatballs and pasta made from scratch.
Ingredients
For the pasta
For the meatballs
- 600g/1lb 5oz whole beef shin on the bone
- 6 tbsp olive oil
- 3 carrots, peeled and chopped
- 2 celery sticks, chopped
- 2 sprigs fresh thyme, leaves removed and chopped
- 2 sprigs fresh oregano, leaves removed and chopped
- 800g/1lb 12oz cherry vine tomatoes, halved
- 1 onion, chopped
- 500ml/18fl oz passata
- pinch caster sugar
- 1 banana shallot, chopped
- 110ml/3¾fl oz full-fat milk
- 45g/1½oz porridge oats
- 400g/14oz beef mince
- 1 medium free-range egg, beaten
- 50g/1¾oz gouda, grated
- 1 lemon, zest only
- salt and freshly ground black pepper
To serve
Method
To make the pasta, place the semolina flour and salt into a large bowl. Add the beaten egg and olive oil and use your hands to bring it together to form a dough.
Knead on a clean work surface for 5–7 minutes or until the dough is smooth. Wrap in cling film and rest in the fridge overnight, if you can, or at least for 3 hours. Remove from the fridge 20 minutes before using.
Sprinkle a work surface with some semolina flour then roll out the pasta dough into a large circle about 2mm thick. Fold the pasta in half, sprinkling some more semolina in between the layers; do this three times, at the end you will have a long rectangular log shape. Cut this widthways into 5mm/¼in strips. Set aside on a tray sprinkled with semolina flour until needed.
To make the meatballs, preheat the oven to 170C/150C Fan/Gas 3. Season the beef with salt and pepper.
Place a frying pan over a high heat with 2 tablespoons of the oil, then add the beef shin and seal the meat all over until golden-brown. Remove and set aside.
Place a medium sauté pan over a medium heat and add a little oil. Fry the carrots, celery, thyme, oregano, tomatoes and onion for 5 minutes. Add the passata and stir well.
Pour the tomato sauce into an ovenproof dish and place the beef shin on top. Cover with baking paper and kitchen foil. Cook for 3 hours in the oven.
Remove the beef shin from the dish and shred the meat, then set aside. Add the caster sugar and a pinch of salt to the tomato sauce that is in the dish, then use a hand-held blender to blend the sauce until smooth. Set aside.
Increase the oven temperature to 200C/180C Fan/Gas 6.
Heat a medium frying pan and add 2 tablespoons of the oil. Once hot, add the shallot and cook for 5–6 minutes. Stir in the milk and cook for a further minute. Place the oats into a bowl then pour over the shallot and milk mixture.
Place the mince in a separate large bowl along with half of the shredded beef shin (the remaining meat can be used for another dish). Add the beaten egg, gouda and some black pepper. Add the oat mixture to the bowl. Stir in the lemon zest and mix to combine.
Line a baking sheet with baking paper. Use an ice cream scoop to make meatball shapes from the mixture. Rest in the fridge for at least 30 minutes.
Heat a flameproof dish on the hob and add 2 tablespoons of oil. Once hot, fry the meatballs and until browned all over and then pour over the tomato sauce. Transfer to the oven and cook for 25 minutes.
To serve, heat a large saucepan of boiling salted water and cook the pasta for 2 minutes, then drain.
Serve the cooked meatballs on top of the cooked pasta, garnishing with oregano leaves and cheese.
