Directions

If you're looking for a simple recipe that will have everyone, including your kids, asking for more, look no further! Ragu is a flavor packed sauce that slow cooks for hours, allowing you time to do other things. What I also love about it is, if you make too much, it's really easy to freeze your leftovers and break them out on a day where you don't feel like cooking!

As with most slow simmering sauces, you can make changes to this as you see fit. I add the yellow squash because it's easy to trick my kids into eating vegetables when they don't see them. Me FTW!

1. Season beef chunks liberally with salt and pepper.

2. Heat olive oil over medium-high in a large heavy bottom pan. Add your soffrito (onions, garlic, carrots, celery, and squash), and cook for 5 minutes or until onions are soft but not burning.

3. Move soffrito to one side and add the beef chunks. Brown on each side, only turning to cover as mover surface area as possible (3-5 minutes).

4. Add tomato paste and stir to combine, cooking for an additional minute.

5. Deglaze the pan by pouring the wine over the mix. Scrape the bottom of the pan to get any crusty bits mixed in.

6. Add tomato sauce and beef broth, stirring to combine. Bring pot to a boil and then turn heat down to a gentle simmer. Cover and cook for 2 hours or until beef is fall part tender.

7. Remove Beef from the pan and shred (I sometimes do this in the pan, depends on how shredded you prefer it to be). Simmer for an additional 30 minutes or so until the sauce is the consistency you like.

8. Add your parmesan and stir gently to mix in. At this point, you're tasting and adjusting.

9. Serve over your cooked pasta and top with additional fresh parmesan!