Ultimate Italian Beef Ragu

Ristorante-La-Porta-Capalbio

On our honeymoon, we ended up passing through a tiny village in the Tuscany region of Italy by the name of Capalbio. We arrived a bit earlier than the dinner hour and stumbled upon a restaurant called La Porta. We noticed the door was locked, but we could see throught the kitchen window, an elderly nonna named Alma was making lots of racket in the kitchen. She told us through the window to return for dinner in 20 minutes. We sat overlooking the Province of Grosseto while we eagerly waited for La Porta to open.Once the clock tower chimed, we made our way back to La Porta to be greeted by a roaring fire and our very dear chef. We asked what to order and she definitively said, “The pasta!” Order the pasta we did. It was mouthwateringly good. So good in fact, my husband ordered a second plate of the ragu and was able to wrangle her secret recipe. A sure to be treasured heirloom from our honeymoon for sure. We hope you too get lots of satisfaction cooking this recipe for ragu, and if time some homemade pasta too. We made this homemade gluten-free pasta on Christmas day using brown rice flour. It was a little tricky since it didn’t behave exactly like wheat flour. From experience, I recommend shorter pasta noodles, since the dough breaks quite easily. Nevertheless, it turned out delicious and we can’t wait to make again. Enjoy!

1 lb. ground beefExtra virgin olive oil

1 onion, diced

1 carrot, diced

handful parsley

2 Tablespoons tomato puree (tomato paste)

1 kg. peeled tomatoes

110 ml red wine (a glass)

sea salt to taste

Method

Put in the pot the oil, onion and carrot, fry a little, then add the minced meat and a little bit of parsley.

Let it fry then add the red wine, 2 tablespoons of tomato puree and 1 kg of peeled tomatoes.

Let it cook over low heat for 2 hours