Beef Cheek Ragu with Pappardelle

This is beef cheek and celery seed ragu, with pappardelle, and it's wonderfully easy

Ingredients for the Ragu:

1 Beef Cheek

2 x 400g Tins of Diced Tomato

1 Large Red Onion, Finely Diced

1 Large Carrot, Minced

Half a Bulb of Garlic, minced

2 Tsp Celery Seeds

1 Tbsp Tomato Paste

1 Optional Tbsp Muscovado Sugar (if your tomatoes are shit)

Olive Oil

A handful of Curly Parsley, minced

Handful of Basil leaves, roughly torn, stems minced

Salt

Pepper

Coat the bottom of a pressure cooker (or stewing pot) with olive oil. Add the onion, garlic, carrot, turn on the heat to medium, soften. Add the whole beef cheek. Add the tomatoes, tomato paste and 800ml water. Add the basil stems, and cover. Pressure cook on medium for 2.5-3 hours, or 8 hours if using a normal pot.

In the meantime, make the pasta.

Ingredients for the Pasta:

3 large eggs

300g high grade flour +extra for dusting

Olive oil

Sea Salt

Flour goes on a large, clean work surface in a pile. Make a crater in the middle. Add a drizzle of olive oil (couple tablespoons), a couple pinches of sea salt, and eggs. Whisk the eggs with a fork in the crater, slowly incorporate the flour, keeping the crater intact for a while. When it's not going to run everywhere, mix it all together, and knead until smooth. Press a finger into the dough, if it bounces back, you're done. Let it rest half an hour. (I just do it on the counter under a bowl, not gonna use plastic.)

After half an hour, quarter the dough, and put through a pasta machine to form sheets, not too thin (~1mm thick -it's 6 on mine).

Make sure the sheets are well floured, fold over a few times along the short axis and cut into long ribbons of pappardelle.

Shred the beef, add back to the pot, reduce, or add a little water if it's too thick. Season to taste, including sugar. Stir in the parsley for freshness, and basil.

Boil the pasta in salted water, (like, your tears, not the ocean), and when nearly al dente, transfer straight to the ragu (don't strain out- you want the water it brings across), and mix in.

Serve with parmigiano and a drizzle of olive oil, maybe some extra basil leaves.

Enjoy!