There are recipes you make for weeknights and recipes you make when you have time and intention, and this ragu belongs firmly in the second category. It demands four hours of your afternoon and repays them extravagantly. The smell alone — the long, slow perfume of wine and meat and vegetables reducing together — is reason enough to make it on a cold Sunday.

I first made this recipe from notes I took during a cooking class in Bologna, adjusted over the years to suit what I can find in my local market. The key differences from a conventional Bolognese: much chunkier beef (shoulder braised in large pieces rather than minced), more wine, less milk, and a longer cook time. The result is a ragu with genuine body and texture — not a sauce so much as a meal that happens to be served with pasta.

Ingredients

1.2kg beef chuck or shoulder, cut into large chunks (roughly 6–8cm)

3 tbsp olive oil

1 large onion, finely diced

3 stalks celery, finely diced

2 large carrots, finely diced

6 cloves garlic, thinly sliced

2 tbsp tomato paste

400ml full-bodied red wine (Chianti or similar — nothing you wouldn’t drink)

400ml beef stock

1 × 400g tin whole plum tomatoes

3 sprigs fresh rosemary

4 sprigs fresh thyme

2 bay leaves

Salt and pepper

To Serve

600g dried pappardelle (or fresh if you can get it)

75g unsalted butter

100g Parmesan, finely grated, plus extra to serve

Small handful of flat-leaf parsley, roughly chopped

Method

Season the beef generously with salt and pepper. Heat the olive oil in a large, heavy-based pot (a Dutch oven is ideal) over high heat until smoking. Working in batches to avoid crowding, sear the beef on all sides until deeply browned — 3–4 minutes per side. This step is not optional. The colour is flavour. Remove the beef to a plate as it’s done.

Reduce the heat to medium. Add the onion, celery, and carrot to the same pot and cook, stirring and scraping up the browned bits from the base, for 10 minutes until softened and beginning to colour. Add the garlic and tomato paste and cook, stirring, for 2 minutes.

Pour in the wine and increase the heat to high. Let it bubble vigorously for 4–5 minutes until reduced by about half — you want the raw alcohol to cook off and the wine to concentrate. Add the stock and tinned tomatoes, breaking up the tomatoes with a spoon. Tuck in the rosemary, thyme, and bay leaves. Return the beef and any resting juices to the pot. The liquid should come about two-thirds of the way up the meat.

Bring to a gentle simmer, cover, and cook on the lowest possible heat for 3.5 to 4 hours, turning the beef every hour or so, until the meat is completely tender and falling apart. Alternatively, transfer to an oven preheated to 150°C (300°F) and braise, covered, for the same time.

Remove the beef to a board and use two forks to pull it apart into rough shreds — not too fine, you want some texture. Discard the herb stalks and bay leaves. If the sauce looks thin, simmer it uncovered over medium-high heat for 10–15 minutes until it thickens. Return the shredded beef to the sauce and taste for seasoning.

Cook the pappardelle in generously salted boiling water until al dente, reserving a mugful of pasta water before draining. Add the drained pasta to the ragu along with the butter, tossing over low heat and adding pasta water a splash at a time until the sauce coats the pasta in glossy ribbons. Remove from heat and stir through most of the Parmesan.

Serve in warmed bowls with extra Parmesan, the parsley, and a twist of black pepper. Open another bottle of the wine you used for cooking.

Serves: 8 | Prep time: 30 mins | Cook time: 4 hours | Ragu keeps refrigerated for 5 days and freezes beautifully