Handcut pasta with braised lamb shank ragu.

This is something I haven't made in over a year and it was long overdue. The ragu took about 5-6 hours of cooking time with about four of those hours braising the lamb shanks and another hour and a half reducing it the braising liquid which would become my sauce. The lamb was first seared to begin the process of building the flavors for the ragu thanks to the maillard effect.

If there is too much fat in your pan after the searing, feel free to pour some out leaving about a tablespoon or two left to saute your aromatics. After the lamb was removed from the dutch oven, onions and garlic went in with a healthy pinch of salt and pepper. As the onions cooked they also released some liquid which helped to deglaze the bottom of the dutch oven. After the onions have softened and are translucent I put in about a cup and a half of red wine. I let that reduce by about half. Next went in a couple of large cans of whole peeled tomatoes, my favorite being Muir Glen. As you bring that up to temperature start breaking up some of the tomatoes with your spoon. Then return the lamb shanks and if you need more liquid add some water until the lamb is just covered with liquid.

Next I bring it up to where it is just about to boil and then throw it into a 295 degree oven, uncovered. The reason I keep it uncovered is two-fold. First, I need to reduce the sauce anyway so if I keep the lid off then it will slowly reduce while the lamb braises. The second reason is because with the lid on it increases the pressure in the cooking vessel and as those of you who remember high school physics will recall an increase in pressure results in an increase in temperature. So putting the lid on could increase the temperature from your desired 295 to something higher which could result in dried out meat.

It stays in there until the lamb is tender and falling off the bone. This will probably take you a few hours. Typically what I do after I get to that point is I turn off the oven and let everything sit in there together until it cools. The meat will continue to braise as it slowly cools, plus at the end you will be able to pull the meat off the bones without burning off your fingers.



The marrow that was once inside those bones is now part of the sauce which will help to give it body and richness.

After the lamb has been removed and shredded, the braising liquid, which is really just a tomato sauce, is slowly reduced on the stovetop until it gets to the saucy consistency you desire. This can take about an hour and a half, more or less, depending on how much water you needed to add in the beginning.

While it's reducing we started making the pasta by using Thomas Keller's pasta dough recipe from the French Laundry cookbook. You'll have to tweak it depending on the conditions in your kitchen at the time. It was really dry in our kitchen so a little more liquid needed to be added to the dough to bring it all together.



After resting for a little while we portion out the dough and begin rolling it into sheets.



After the sheets are rolled out I divide them into long sections.



The sections are then rolled up like a scroll of paper and then cut into pappardelle, which happens to be my favorite pasta.





Bring a pot of salted water to a boil, salty like the sea, and throw these guys in. They won't take very long to cook so hopefully your sauce is ready. Oh yeah, about that sauce, after it gets to the saucy consistency you want fold, in your shredded lamb shanks and bring everything back up to simmer.



When your pasta is ready toss it with the sauce and use a little of the pasta water if necessary. Most of the time I'll do this in a large pan on the stove over a medium heat because as the pasta continues to cook with the sauce it'll absorb the sauce. If you're doing it family style throw it all into a big bowl (sorry I didn't wipe down the sides of the bowl before shooting the picture).



Or just plate it up.



I like to top mine with a little pecorino because a lamb ragu with a sheep's milk cheese just seems to make sense. Enjoy it with a nice glass of chianti or sangiovese or whatever other red wine you like.