Slow Cooker Beef Ragu

Slow Cooker Beef Ragu Recipe

Season the beef with salt and pepper.
In a frying pan over high heat, brown the beef on all sides. Once browned, put to the side.
Deglaze the pan with the red wine, then transfer to a slow cooker.
Next, in the slow cooker, add the beef, onion, garlic, carrots, celery, sugar, fennel seeds, thyme, bay leaves, tomato paste, crushed tomatoes, and the beef stock.
Cook on low for 10 hours.
Remove the beef from the slow cooker and shred using two forks. Return the beef to the slow cooker once it has been shredded.
Turn the slow cooker to high and cook for 15 minutes.
Season with salt & pepper.
Serve & Enjoy.

You can make this recipe gluten-free by using a gluten-free pasta instead of the pappardelle pasta.
You can use any type of pasta for this beef ragu. Still, for the best results, I highly recommend using pappardelle pasta.
It is essential to cook the pasta separately from the sauce. Cooking the pasta in the slow cooker will likely leave you with a super thick sauce and inconsistently cooked pasta. Use the cooking recommendations on the packet of the pasta to get the best results.
Any cut of beef will work fine for this recipe, but I highly recommend choosing a tough cut of meat. By the time you are ready to pull the meat apart, the beef should be super tender.
The slight addition of sugar is recommended to help take away some of the acidity of the tomatoes. If you are avoiding sugar, then you can easily leave this out.
You might need to skim the fat from the liquid when you remove the beef. The process of doing this is straightforward and will leave you with a less greasy ragu.
The beef should easily pull apart. Otherwise, it is likely the beef will need to be kept cooking for even longer. If you are running low on time, speed up the cooking by turning the slow cooker to high.

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