Lamb ragu

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5 from 6 votes

This lamb ragu pasta sauce is easy to make and packed with delicious, rich comforting flavor.

Prep Time15

Cook Time1 15

Total Time1 30

Course: Main Course

Cuisine: Italian

Servings: approx

Calories: 276kcal

Author: Caroline's Cooking

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Ingredients

1 ½ lb lamb shoulder 675g
1 onion or ½ large onion
1 carrot
1 rib celery
3 cloves garlic (or 2 if large)
1 tablespoon olive oil (or a little more if needed)
¾ cup dry red wine 180ml
¼ cup stock or water, 60ml
14 oz tomato passata 400g (or use finely chopped tomatoes)
1 ½ teaspoon mixed herbs (or use blend of approx ½ teaspoon oregano, ½ teaspoon thyme, ¼ teaspoon sage and ¼ teaspoon marjoram)

Instructions

Trim excess fat from the lamb and cut into approx 1in/2.5cm dice. Cut the onion, carrot and celery into a small dice and finely dice the garlic.
Warm roughly half the oil in a medium heavy-based pot/pan over a medium-high heat. Brown the lamb on all sides in batches to make sure you don't overcrowd the pan. Make sure you get a nice sear on the meat, at least on some sides, and transfer to a plate once they are browned on all sides.
Reduce the heat slightly (to more of a medium heat) and add the remaining oil. Add the onion, carrot and celery and cook around 5-8 minutes until the vegetables are starting to brown slightly, adding the garlic once the vegetables have softened.
Add the lamb back into the pot then add the wine to deglaze the pot (you want it to start to simmer, while you scrape any browning from the bottom of the pot which adds flavor to the sauce).
Add the stock/water, tomatoes and herbs. Stir and bring to a simmer then reduce the heat. Cover with the lid slightly open to let it reduce a little and leave to simmer gently for approximately an hour, possibly longer, until the meat is very tender.
Break up the meat by shredding against the side of the pot or with forks (you can also leave in larger pieces, but I find it works better as a sauce when broken up).
You can either leave to cool and then pack up to store for later/freeze at this point, or keep warm while you cook pasta. You can either serve it over cooked pasta or mix it through, as you prefer.

Notes

This quantity of sauce works well with approximately 1lb/500g of dried pasta. If you want to prepare the sauce ahead, it is best to chill or freeze the sauce without the pasta in it then cook the pasta when ready to eat. You can increase/decrease the amount of meat slightly, depending on what you have available, and keep the rest the same.

Nutrition