Sunday Beef Ragu

Three hours, most of it unattended. It freezes well and the second day is better than the first.

Ingredients

1.5 kg beef shin or chuck, cut into large chunks · 2 onions · 2 carrots · 2 celery sticks · 4 garlic cloves · 2 tbsp tomato purée · 400 ml red wine · 1 tin tomatoes · 500 ml beef stock · 2 bay leaves · oil, salt, pepper

Method

Dice the onions, carrots and celery small — this is the difference between a sauce and a stew. Brown the beef hard in batches in a heavy casserole. Don't move it around; let each side take real colour, then set it aside.

Cook the vegetables in the same pot for 10 minutes, add the garlic and tomato purée and cook another two. Pour in the wine and scrape the bottom properly. Return the beef, add tomatoes, stock and bay, and bring to a bare simmer.

Cover and put in the oven at 150 °C for three hours. When it comes out the beef should fall apart under a spoon. Shred it with two forks and stir it back through the sauce. If it's loose, reduce it on the hob; if it's tight, a splash of stock.