This Lamb Ragu is something I had been thinking about for quite some time. When I finally got around to making it, it was everything I wanted and more. The slow cooked lamb on the bone, the mirepoix, the rich tomato sauce all meld together beautifully to create the most deliciously rich ragu. This is a little labour of love, but so worth it.
Ingredients:
- 1kg lamb on the bone or 600g boneless lamb.
- 2 large celery stalks
- 3 medium onions
- 4 medium carrots
- 1 whole bulb garlic crushed
- Salt to taste
- 2.5 tsp smoked paprika, dried parsley, oregano
- 1.5 tsp black pepper
- 1 tsp thyme, rosemary, cumin powder, coriander powder
- 1/4 tsp cinnamon
- Chilli flakes or powder (optional)
- 2 tbsp tomato puree
- 500g tomato passata
- 750ml mutton/lamb stock
- 1 large handful fresh coriander
- 1/2 tsp sugar
Method:
- Heat up some olive oil in a heavy bottom pan.
- Sear the lamb pieces, making sure to get a nice golden colour all around. Make sure not to overcrowd the pan and work in batches if needed. Once seared, take out of the pan and set aside.
- Blitz or chop carrots, onion and celery until diced finely.
- In same pan used for the lamb, add this mix and deglaze the pan as you stir it. Cook on medium, keep adding more olive oil if needed.
- After 5 mins, add garlic and cook for a further 15-20 mins on a low medium heat until soft.
- Add the herbs, spices, tomato puree and a splash of water. Cook on a high heat until the oil separates from the mixture.
- Add the lamb pieces and its juices back to the pan and cook on high for 5 minutes, giving everything a good stir.
- Pour in the passata, stir and cook on high until the oil separates from the mixture.
- At this point, pour in your stock, coriander and sugar, stirring well. Bring this to a boil, then cover and simmer for a minimum of one hour or until lamb is tender and falling apart.
- If you are using bone in lamb, take the lamb pieces out of the pan and shred meat off the bones. If you are using boneless lamb, you can shred this in the pan.
- Add the lamb back into the pan, and stir well.
- Pour in more water to preference and bring to a boil.
- Cover and slow cook for another minimum of 1 hour. For best results slow cook as long as you can, adding water when needed.
- Serve with pasta of choice.
Tip:
- Using lamb on the bone will give a much richer flavour to this dish.
- If the mixture sticks to the bottom of the pan at any point, this will impart more flavour to the dish when deglazed.
- Beef should work well with this recipe too.
- Slow cooking this for as long as possible gives a richer ragu.