Grass-Fed Beef Ragu with Polenta

Sunday Cooking on a Weeknight Schedule

A proper ragu usually asks for three hours. This one gets most of the way there in forty-five minutes by browning the beef hard for depth, using tomato paste rather than relying on tinned tomatoes alone, and finishing with a knob of butter to round the acidity. Soft polenta underneath makes it feel like a restaurant plate with almost no extra work.

Ingredients

Serves 4  |  Cost: $7.50 per serving  |  Total: $30.00  |  Ready in 45 min

• 600 g (1⅓ lb) grass-fed ground beef
• 2 tablespoons olive oil
• 3 tablespoons tomato paste
• 400 g (14 oz) tinned crushed tomatoes
• 250 ml (1 cup) beef bone broth
• 150 ml red wine
• 2 bay leaves
• 200 g (1 cup) instant polenta
• 1 litre (4 cups) water or additional broth, for the polenta
• 3 tablespoons butter

Instructions

1. Brown the beef properly. Heat the olive oil in a heavy pot over high heat. Add the beef in one layer and leave it completely undisturbed for 4 minutes to develop a hard brown crust before breaking it up. This crust is where the flavour comes from.
2. Build the base. Stir in the tomato paste and cook for 2 minutes until it darkens to a brick red. Pour in the red wine and scrape the bottom of the pot thoroughly, simmering until reduced by half.
3. Simmer the ragu. Add the crushed tomatoes, bone broth and bay leaves. Season with salt and pepper, bring to a bare simmer, and cook uncovered for 30 minutes, stirring occasionally, until thick and glossy.
4. Make the polenta. Bring the water or broth to a boil in a separate pan with a good pinch of salt. Whisk in the polenta in a steady stream and cook, stirring constantly, for 5 minutes until thick. Beat in 2 tablespoons of the butter.
5. Finish and serve. Remove the bay leaves and stir the last tablespoon of butter into the ragu until glossy. Spoon the soft polenta into warm bowls, make a well in each, and ladle the ragu into it.

Nutritional & Dietary Notes

Gluten-Free

Every ingredient in this recipe is naturally free from wheat, barley and rye. If you are cooking for someone with coeliac disease, double-check any stock, sauce or spice blend you buy in, as gluten-containing thickeners and malt derivatives are common hidden additions in commercial products.

Featured HOTRO.ca Product

This recipe is built around Grass-Fed Ground Beef from HOTRO.ca. We source premium BC-raised and ethically farmed meats and slow-simmered bone broth, so the quality of the core ingredient does most of the work for you. Substituting a lesser product will change the result more than any other single change you could make to this recipe.

A slow-simmered grass-fed beef ragu spooned over soft, buttery polenta.