Janice Tripepi

In this day and age when we are generally rushed off our feet,  this dish cracks a ten out of ten.  Ragu – basically is a meat sauce for pasta.  A bolognaise is a ragu – any sauce that contains meat falls under the generic term ragu.  This ragu – takes the cake.  You are cooking a sliverside roast in a sauce – the meat imparts a rich deep flavour to the sauce – which is generally used to prepare the starter for the meal ie. pasta and the meat constitutes the main dish of the meal.  So WALLA – two dishes cooked in one pot. 

The eye of a silverside is a really really inexpensive cut of meat – the success of cooking this piece of beef is in looooooong slow cooking.  You cannot cook it any other way – it’s not forgiving like a nice juicky fillet that can be browned and bunged into the oven for 20 minutes.  I guess – as it’s a cheaper cut one needs to coax flavour out of it and tenderness into it!!!   But when prepared with some love and care it’s delish!!!

INGREDIENTS FOR THE RAGU

1 Eye of Silverside Roast (the one in the picture cost R68.90)

4 tins of peeled tomatoes liquidised

6 cloves of garlic finely chopped

3 medium onions finely chopped

3 carrots grated

3 sticks of celery grated

2 chicken stock cubes

2 glasses of white wine

water

4 sprigs of thyme and 4 of rosemary

In a nice heavy pot – brown the roast well on all sides and remove from the pot

Here is the browned Silverside and it cooking away happily

in the tomatoe sauce.

In the same heavy pot -

Pour in some olive oil and brown the onion & garlic

When browned add in the dry white wine and reduce until the alcohol has cooked off

Add the celery, carrot, chicken stock cube, rosemary, thyme and liquidised tomatoes

Bring this to the boil stirring frequently

Add the Siverside back to the pot and top up with water until the roast is covered with liquid

Bring this to the boil – for about 15 minutes and then reduce to a slow simmer

and let the meat gently cook in the tomato sauce.

I cooked this for about 3 hours nice and gently – turning the piece of meat

every hour or so.

Don’t worry that the sauce is watery – when the meat is cooked you will remove it

and bring the sauce to the boil – and reduce it to a nice thick consistency.

When the roast is cooked – take out of the sauce and wrap in foil or put in a dish with a lid and

allow to cool slowly.  When it’s cooled nicely cut into slices using an electirc knife.

Place in dish and cover with half of the nice deep meaty tomato sauce.

NB: I HAVE COOKED HALF OF A SILVERSIDE HERE, SO IF YOU HAVE A LARGE FAMILY

GATHERING OR SUCH TO COOK FOR – A WHOLE SIVERSIDE WILL FEED 15 TO 20 PEOPLE

WITH EASE. 

The rest of the sauce you can use to prepare a nice

dish of pasta.

And here you have – your starter of Spaghetti al Ragu with a dash of fresh cream

and

Arrosto di Carne al Ragu seerved with a nice rocket salad.

Buon Appetito!

Ciao For Now!!!!

Jan

xxx