Slow Cooked Lamb Ragu

This slow cooked lamb ragu will give you soft, tender, mouth watering braised lamb in a rich red wine and tomato sauce.

Course Main Course

Cuisine Modern Australian

Total Time 4

Servings

Calories 635kcal

Author Lee-Ann Grace

Ingredients

4 lamb shanks - trimmed of excess fat
3 tablespoon olive oil divided
200 g speck chopped
300 g button mushrooms quartererd
2 carrots sliced into 1cm (⅓") half moons
1 onion chopped
2 tablespoon plain/all purpose flour
1 ½ cups dry red wine
1 tablespoon tomato paste
1 teaspoon dried rosemary
4 garlic cloves crushed/minced
2 bay leaves dried
4 cups beef stock (warmed in microwave - optional to save time, see my notes)
pappardelle pasta to serve
shaved parmesan cheese to serve

Metric - US customary

Instructions

Preheat oven to 160c / 320f.
Heat olive oil (1 tbsp) in a large dutch oven. Fry sliced carrots, chopped onion & chopped speck over medium heat for 4-5 mins, or until onion starts to soften & speck starts to colour slightly.
3 tablespoon olive oil, 2 carrots, 1 onion, 200 g speck
Add mushrooms to onion mixture and continue to fry, stirring, for 2 mins then remove everything to a bowl and set aside.
300 g button mushrooms
Allow pot to reheat, meanwhile dust lamb shanks in flour. Add olive oil (1 tbsp) to pot and fry shanks over medium high heat for 7-9 mins, turning occasionally to brown on all sides well and adding more oil as needed. You should be getting a nice brown layer on the base of your pot - this will add flavour to our sauce.
2 tablespoon plain/all purpose flour, 4 lamb shanks - trimmed of excess fat
Once shanks are browned, remove to a plate.
Add red wine to pot to deglaze. Stir tomato paste, dried rosemary, crushed/minced garlic & bay leaves into wine and bring to a simmer as you scrape up the flavour layer from the base of the pot. Simmer for about 2 mins or until wine mixture is reduced by about half.
4 garlic cloves, 1 ½ cups dry red wine, 1 tablespoon tomato paste, 1 teaspoon dried rosemary, 2 bay leaves
Return shanks to the pot, along with the reserved veg mixture plus any drippings. Add stock (4 cups) to the pot, mixing slightly to combine. Bring to a simmer - once simmering, cover lamb mixture with a circle of baking paper (see notes) & bake with the lid on for 3 hours or until lamb is tender. The lamb should be falling away from the bones.
4 cups beef stock
Once lamb is cooked, remove bay leaves & discard. Remove lamb from pot (leaving sauce in the pot) and shred lamb with 2 forks, discarding fat & bones.
While you are shredding the lamb, place your pot o sauce on the stove top and simmer until the sauce is thickened to your liking. Add shredded lamb to sauce & serve with pappardelle pasta.
pappardelle pasta, shaved parmesan cheese

Notes

I choose to heat my stock in the microwave purely to save myself some time. This is totally optional.
Make sure you get some good deep colour on your lamb shanks when you brown them. This will give you bags more flavour at the end.
I have cut the carrots quite large for this recipe, this is so that they mostly stay intact for the 3 hour cooking time. You could cut them smaller/thinner if you like, but just know that they will probably break down a lot by the end of the cooking time - which is fine if that's what you are going for!.
The recipe calls for a circle of baking paper (or a "cartouche" in fancy cooking terms) to be placed over the meat as it cooks - this keeps the top of your meat/veg moist as it simmers. You can see my post Mushroom Osso Buco & Cartouche Instructions for more info.
You will need to be careful when you are taking the shanks out of the sauce once they are cooked. The meat will be VERY soft, and has a tendency to come away from the bones (which is what we want!) BUT bits of lamb can "plop" back into the sauce as you fish the shanks out and splash you with hot sauce! Been there, done that.

*Please note that the amount of calories per serve is provided as a guide only, as ingredients and cooking methods can vary greatly*

Nutrition