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Sunday Slow Cooker Beef Ragu
The ultimate comfort food! A big bowl of slow cooked, braised beef in a rich, robust tomato sauce tossed with pasta. I guarantee that you will go back for seconds!
This is hands down one of my family’s favorite meals. It is a huge bowl of comfort food. It combines a slow roasted, tender roast and a big bowl of pasta and covered in grated parmesan cheese. It is the perfect Fall and winter meal.
This Slow Cooker Beef Ragu is cooked low and slow in a crockpot. It is tender beef slowly cooked in a homemade marinara sauce and Italian spices and tossed with pappardelle pasta and parmesan cheese.
The key is to cook the beef roast low and slow. I usually reach for a lean chuck beef roast and cook it on low for 8 hours. It is slowly braised in liquids — tomatoes, beef broth, and Italian spices — and cooked with diced onion and carrots to give it extra flavor.
I am such a sucker for meats cooked in a slow cooker. It is the most low-maintenance meal in the universe and it produces the most heavenly results. This Slow Cooker Meat Ragu is an authentic Italian meal that everyone loves!
This is served on a bed of pasta. I love to reach for pappardelle which is a thick, egg-based pasta because it is robust enough to hold up to the meat Ragu. If you can find fresh pasta in your grocery store, that is always a plus! I also love to peruse the aisles of specialty stores such as Cost Plus World Market or Home Goods and find their imported pastas from Italy. They have the most unique shapes that you don’t usually find in your local grocery store. If you want to really step it up a notch, make homemade pasta from scratch.
You can tailor make this to fit the tastes of your family. If you like spicier Italian foods, add a touch more red chili flakes. If you love basil, add both dried and fresh basil. If you love the flavor of thyme, add some thyme to your sauce.
Top a big bowl of pasta with freshly grated parmesan cheese or rich, creamy burrata cheese. Hey you can even top this big bowl of pasta with both of them!
This recipe is loosely based on a cookbook from Lidia Bastianich. I just used it as my inspiration!
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Slow Cooker Sunday Beef Ragu
Ingredients
- (1) 2.5 lb Beef Roast (such as chuck)
- 1-2 Tablespoons Olive Oil
- 1-2 teaspoons Salt
- 1 teaspoon Pepper
- 4 cloves Garlic (minced)
- 1 large Onion (finely diced)
- 1 large Carrot (peeled and finely diced)
- (1) 28-ounce can Crushed Tomatoes (such as San Marzano)
- 1/4 cup Tomato Paste
- 1/2 to 1 cup Beef Broth (start with 1/2 cup and add more as needed)
- 1 1/2 teaspoons Basil
- 1/2 teaspoon Red Chili Flakes
Garnish:
- 1 lb. Pasta (such as pappardelle)
- 1 cup Freshly Grated Parmesan Cheese
- Fresh Basil
Instructions
- Heat a large skillet or pot over medium-high heat. Add oil and then carefully place roast on top of the oil. If the oil becomes too hot, be careful of splattering oil. Sear on both sides for about 2-3 minutes.
- Place beef roast into slow cooker. Season with salt and pepper. Add garlic, onion, carrots, tomatoes, tomato paste, beef broth, basil, and red chili flakes.
- Cook on low for 8 hours. Shred meat with two forks. Taste for seasoning and add more salt as needed.
- While meat is cooking, cook pasta according to package instructions. Toss with shredded meat Ragu. Serve and top with freshly grated parmesan cheese and fresh basil. May serve with fresh burrata cheese as well.
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
This recipe was delicious! Easy to make & we all went back for seconds.
Made this dish yesterday.
So delicious! Used egg noodles as I couldn’t find pappardelle. It was fine.
The meat was so tender and sauce was hearty.
Definitely will make this again!
So flavorul and tender! I served over pasta and everyone in my family was going back for seconds!
As with all your recipes, made this exactly as the recipe directed, and we loved it. Our son and daughter-in-law were visiting, and they enjoyed it, also.
We made this tonight for a large family dinner and it was AMAZING!!! We used the lower amount of beef broth suggested. We also ended up having to add a bit of brown sugar because our carrots weren’t sweet at all and so the sauce was too acidic at first. But a small amount of brown sugar balanced things.
Adding the fresh basil and cheese was incredible. We also put out a couple of varieties of balsamic vinegar to drizzle if people wanted. Everyone loved it. This is a wonderful recipe!