Serves 4-6
Ingredients
Short rib ragu
2 Hunts Premium beef short ribs or Dino ribs (around 1.2kg)
1 onion
2 celery stick
1 carrot
5 garlic cloves
1 tbsp fresh thyme leaves
2 bay leaves
250ml white wine
2x 400g tins of chopped tomatoes
400ml water
Brown butter bechamel
80g of unsalted butter
80g of flour
700ml of whole milk, warmed
1 ball of mozzarella (125g)
2 tsp dijon mustard
Lasagne
12 dried lasagne sheets
To serve
100g rocket
Drizzle balsamic vinegar
Method:
1 Heat a large heavy-bottomed casserole over a high heat and season the short ribs heavily with salt and pepper. Once the pan is smoking hot, add them with a small dash of oil to the pan – it won’t need much as the beef fat will render out. Cook until browned all over then transfer to a plate. Turn the heat down to medium and add the diced onion, celery, carrot and garlic with a pinch of salt and cook in the rendered beef fat until softened – around 8-10 minutes.
2 Add the short ribs back to the pan along with any resting juices on the plate, then cover with the wine and tinned tomatoes. Add some water to the tomato tins and swill to get all the residue then add this to the pan – about an extra 400ml of water total. Add the bay and thyme leaves, then simmer for 3 hours with the lid on, then a final 1 hour with the lid off to thicken the sauce.
3 As the ragu is simmering away, you can make the brown butter bechamel sauce. Melt the butter in a large pan and cook until the white solids have caramelised and smells nutty. At this stage you can stir in the flour, cook for a minute whilst continuously stirring, then whisk in the milk, bit by bit until you have a smooth sauce. Tear the mozzarella into pieces and add, stirring until melted. Season with salt, pepper, nutmeg and vinegar.
4 After this time the meat should be extremely tender. Pull out the bones and discard, then use 2 forks to shred the meat into the sauce, ensuring you also remove the grisly sinew which attached the meat to the bone. It’s sometimes easier to lift the meat out of the pan to do this.
5 Now you’re ready to assemble the lasagne. First spoon a layer of ragu in the bottom of the dish then top with lasagne sheets, followed by the bechamel. Repeat the layers, ending on the bechamel then sprinkle with a good crack of black pepper. Place on a baking sheet (this will catch any over-spill and save you an oven clean) and cook in a preheated oven at 170ºC fan/gas mark 5 for 45-50 minutes. Leave to sit for 10 minutes before serving.
