Red Wine Braised Beef with Pappardelle

overhead view of braised beef over pappardelle on a white plate

Settle in to a winter weekend project.

By Erin Henderson

Braised beef was one of the first “grown up” dinners I ever made. (Coq au vin was the first, but braised beef is probably in the Top Five.)

I was about 27 or 28 years old, madly in love with a guy I thought I would one day marry (a story for another glass of wine), and still working as a television reporter, though my mind was already engaged in a dalliance with the wine world.

Sometime in the depths of winter 20-ish years ago, curled up on my betrothed’s forest green, leather couch (what is it with dudes and leather furniture?), I was leafing through the LCBO’s bi-weekly Vintages magazine, reading up on all the new wine releases and trying to educate myself on the difference between Cabernet and Chianti. Somewhere between the paragraphs on Piedmont and the snippets on Sicily was a side bar recipe for red wine braised short ribs. I’m nearly certain it called for braising in Barolo, but the magazine is long gone, and though I tried to see if I could find it online, it appears to have been lost to the recesses of the early internet – if it was ever there at all.

At the time I was an enthusiastic and ambitious cook, but not a well-educated or experienced one. The only ribs I had ever known were the sticky barbecue kind, and the shock of braising something in red wine – especially Barolo – penetrated through my core straight to my meagre bank account. (I told you, I was working as a reporter in the winter of journalism’s glory days.)

Despite being broke and ignorant to culinary technique, my youthful hubris kicked in to make me believe I could make this. Perhaps we would invite friends over, my boyfriend and I, and we would serve wine and eat braised beef by candlelight and play jazz, and make it all seem effortless, like we hosted all the time, like a real cosmopolitan couple.

I remember he spent all his money buying his house and didn’t quite have enough to splurge on a dining room table, so we brushed the snow off the patio furniture and dragged it inside. You know, as all cosmopolitan couples do.

Anyway, I remember following the recipe to a T. If it commanded 1 tablespoon of thyme or 750 ml of wine, I measured to the exact level – not a grain more or millilitre less. And it must have been a very good recipe because the dinner turned out to be decidedly impressive. No one at the table that night had really ever had braised short ribs before, and its meaty, saucy, luxe heartiness was a revelation to us all.

I wish I had photos of that dinner (this was years before smart phones and snapping photos of everything you ate) and had managed to keep that free magazine. While I likely wouldn’t cook from it anymore, my skills and tastes have changed, and hopefully improved since then, I like leafing through my OG cookbooks and reading my innocent notes in the margins.

Don’t Sweat the Technique – Or, Maybe, Do.

I’ve made braised beef in all its forms – Bourguignon, rouladen, and short ribs – many times over the years. But I’ve recently learned of a new method to ensuring a rich, luscious, moist braise.

I’m not too proud to admit I made a beef Bourguignon recently where the meat came out a bit dry. And I remember a holiday dinner about a year ago where my mum made rouladen, a dish she’s made hundreds of times and is pretty perfect at it, which also was surprisingly dry.  

I know what you’re thinking, because I thought it too: how can something that’s cooked in liquid be dry? So I went on a braising quest to find the answer. My journey led me to Molly Stevens’ masterful All About Braising, expert food scientist Harold McGee, and everyone’s favourite culinary wizard, Kenji Lopez Alt.

I’m no scientist, so I will leave it to you to look up the three I’ve named above, but after reading through their pearls of braising wisdom, I can bottom line it as: meats that are best for braising are tough cuts, requiring a cooking method that will tenderize them. We know this. However, most of us assume – because most recipes instruct – to sear, then boil in liquid, then put in the oven.

This is where my self-assembled expert panel suggests otherwise. I amalgamated their collective wisdom to come up with a method that works exceedingly well to keep braised meats moist and rich: for starters, collagen, which turns into soft and rich gelatin as it breaks down, melts at lower temperatures, so the recipes that call any braise above 350°F, or even 325°F really, are asking for dried-out trouble. Additionally, the surface between the food and the lid needs to be minimized to keep in moisture. Further to this, the initial searing of the meat, which many recipes command a deep sear to lock in moisture, is simply wrong. When you hear that sizzle, that’s water evaporating, and therefore, losing moisture. Mr. McGee says to sear the meat only briefly, just long enough to gain colour, but short enough so that the interior stays cool. Additionally, and mind-blowingly, start the braise in a cold oven. 

The good news is the preventative measures taken to ensure succulent and tender meat aren’t a hardship at all, and don’t add extra work to the already longish process of a beef braise. Try the methods below; I think you’ll be really happy with the results. Let me know what you think.

Red Wine Braised Beef with Pappardelle

I know looking at the never-ending scroll of ingredients below, this recipe comes off as way too fiddly. But I promise you it’s not, and most of the effort is largely hands off, just allowing generous time for building flavour through marinading and braising.

Still it's a bit of a kitchen project that's perfect for quiet winter weekends. Depending on how many are gathered around your table, you could easily get two dinners out of this if you play your cards right. 

This recipe is for a braised beef sauce to be served with pasta, but, to be honest, I usually make the sauce with the leftovers from the short ribs served as a dinner on their own. If this sounds of interest, make the short ribs and serve as is over mashed potatoes with the braising liquid; the following day, remove the bones from what’s left, shred the meat, and reduce the sauce for this ragu recipe.

You don’t have to marinade the beef ahead of time, but it does add flavour, and gives a little boost to tenderizing the tough fibres.

Makes: about 6-8 servings
Chef level: moderate

Ingredients

Marinade:

  • 3 lbs bone-in short ribs, at least one inch thick
  • 2 Tbsp kosher salt
  • 1 Tbsp black pepper
  • 2 Tbsp chopped rosemary
  • 2 Tbsp olive oil
  • 1 onion, chopped
  • 6 garlic cloves, crushed
  • 750 ml inexpensive red wine, such as Côtes du Rhône

Braise:

  • 1 Tbsp canola oil
  • 1 cup carrots, chopped small
  • 1 cup celery chopped small
  • 3 garlic cloves, minced
  • 1 cup onion, finely chopped
  • 3 Tbsp all-purpose flour
  • 500 ml beef stock
  • 1 sprig rosemary
  • 4 bay leaves
  • Salt and pepper, to taste
How to Make It:
  1. Toss the short ribs with salt, pepper, rosemary, and the olive oil.
  2. In a large bowl, add the onion and garlic, and the seasoned short ribs, and cover with red wine.
  3. Cover and refrigerate overnight, or up to 24 hours, to marinate.
  4. Remove the short ribs, and strain the marinade, reserving liquid and discarding solids.
  5. Pat the short ribs dry (leaving them wet will create steam when searing, and that won’t get the desired results of caramelization and colour.)
  6. Add a scant amount of canola oil to a Dutch oven set over med-high heat. (The ribs will give off a lot of fat so you don’t need tons of oil.)
  7. Working in batches, add the ribs to the hot oil to sear until a golden crust forms, about 2-3 minutes per side. We only want to colour the outside and keep the centre of the meat nothing more than lukewarm.
  8. Remove the short ribs from the pan and set aside on a rimmed plate to catch any juices.  
  9. Turn the heat down to medium. Add the carrots, celery, onion, and garlic to the fat in the pot pan, stirring and cooking until soft and lightly browned. About 5 minutes.
  10. Add in the flour, stirring to coat the vegetables. This will get thick and slightly dry, but cook for about a minute, stirring all the while, to cook out the raw flour taste.
  11. Pour in the reserved wine and scrape the bottom of the pot to loosen the cooked-on bits. The wine will warm but we don’t want it to boil.
  12. Turn off the heat, pour in the beef stock.
  13. Return the ribs to the pot, along with any accumulated juices. Place parchment paper directly on top on of the liquid (like a cartouche), pushing down slightly on the beef to submerge. Place a lid on the pot, and place the cold oven.
  14. Set the oven to 200°F
  15. Allow the meat to gently rise in temperature for two hours.
  16. After two hours, increase the heat to 320°F, so the braise will gently raise in temperature to 180°F.
  17. After an hour, begin checking the meat every 30 minutes. You only want a gentle bubble in the liquid. If it’s boiling or cooking too furiously, turn the oven down to 300°F, to achieve that slow and gently bubble.
  18. Once the meat is fork-tender remove from the oven.
  19. Set the meat aside and when cool enough to handle, remove the bones and shred.  
  20. Further reduce the liquid to a thicker ragu-styled sauce.
  21. Test for salt and pepper, return the meat to the sauce and serve over paradelle.
Wine Pairing: 

There are infinite pairing possibilities with this rich and saucy beef dish.

You could easily do what my old Vintages magazine suggested and serve a Barolo, a hearty, earthy red wine from Italy's Piedmont region. The strong tannins in the wine will make for a nice dance partner with all the luscious fat of the beef. 

If you've already blown the budget on the beef and want something a little more modest in price, Bordeaux Superieur, an inexpensive red blend that's typically dominated by either Cabernet Sauvignon or Merlot, depending on the producer and the location. The earthiness of the blend will echo the flavours of the shortribs. 

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