Short rib ragu

When Mike and Nancy came over for dinner, I sous-vided short ribs. It's delicious and incredibly easy, as long as you plan ahead. (See my original post on how I sous-vided the ribs.

I had actually bought these short ribs a few/couple (?) months back. They are angus short ribs from Buford Highway Farmers Market. I salt and peppered them and then vacuum sealed them, and then tossed them into the chest freezer.

To prepare them, I took them out and put them in the fridge to defrost for about one day. Then I sous-vided them at 156 for 48 hours. They were done Saturday morning so I took them out to cool when we went to the farmers market. When cool, I opened their bags and separated out the meat from the juice. Some bones fell out but otherwise, I left them in.

An hour before they arrived, I put all the meat and juice in a pan, covered it, and kept it on low heat to heat through. When it was time to eat, I heated the large cast iron and seared them off, getting the most beautiful and delicious caramelization. It was delicious. Why I have no pictures is beyond me.

Armed with two leftover ribs, I decided to make a ragu for an "easy" supper. While making a sauce from scratch is easy, it still takes time and care. I was working on a presentation for the next day, so it was obvious when I had to keep getting up.

Anyhow.

I had opened up a jar of one of my tomatoes both because I wanted to try them and I needed them in some recipe. The remainder of that jar went into my sauce. But then, I didn't think there was enough, so I boiled some water and peeled the rest of the farmers market tomatoes we had. It was too chunky, so I pureed them in the food processor. (See how just each step seemed to need more work?)

I browned some garlic slices in olive oil, then added the tomatoes. Then I shredded the short rib meat. At first, I tried chopping it, but it was not good. The shredding was so easy. I also tossed in the short rib bone, thinking that it would add nice flavor to my sauce.

I let it bubble away lightly until...

It was time to make the pasta. We are huge fans of Storico Fresco (storicofresco.com/) which you can buy at the Peachtree Road Farmers Market. We buy their stuffed pastas and I keep a list on the fridge so that I know when we have reached their limit in the freezer. They say they will only keep a month, but we push that limit all the time. The pi fasacc had been in there for a month and several days.

By now, my sauce had gotten rather thick and I like a soupy sauce. So I added some of my pasta water to bubble away.

It looks pretty divine, if you do ask me. Which you didn't. The pasta was incredibly rich and delicious. I kept tasting the richness, which reminded me of a good brie. And my sauce, well it was amazing too. The depth of flavor was astounding. It makes my lips smack just thinking about it.