Rigatoni with Beef and Red Wine

As I took my first mouthfull last night I said to myself "why has it been so long since you have made this dish?"  YUM!  In fact we all sat there saying Yum!!  "The Darlings devoured it - it was boys heaven - no veggies!

Yes, it's beef with pasta - and not too many other ingredients, nothing special - but the taste!!!  The element that lifts this dish up to the next level is one of Julia Child's favourite ingredients - BUTTER!!!  The butter just gives it an extra depth of flavour, oh, that and the garlic!!  Try this - you will love it.  Very simple too.

Rigatoni with Beef and Red Wine


Serves 6


100g unsalted butter
5 cloves crushed garlic
800g can crushed tomatoes
350ml red wine (I used merlot)
500g rigatoni pasta
olive oil
1kg beef scotch fillet, very thinly sliced *
grated parmesan
flat leaf parsley


* The tip to getting the steak very thinly sliced is to have it still slightly frozen in the middle.  This is not a great tip in this cold weather as you end up with slightly frost bitten fingers - but it does help getting the steak nice and thin!!  It's worth using a better cut of steak with this - you want the meat to be tender, not chewy.  If you want to vary the amount of steak you could use a little less - but we like meat!


Melt the butter in a large pan over medium heat.  Add the garlic, and cook stirring for 1-2 minutes, or until golden.  Add the tomatoes and stir for 5 minutes.  Add half of the wine, then simmer over medium heat for 15 minutes.  Make sure you stir it frequently as it starts to stick to the bottom as it reduces.  Add the remaining wine, then simmer for another 15 minutes, until well reduced, and quite thick.  Don't foget to stir!!!


Cook the pasta, according to the directions on the pack.  When it is almost cooked, start cooking your beef.  Heat a frypan over high heat - add a small amount of olive oil, and brown the beef in batches.  Do not crowd the pan - it will take 4-5 batches to cook the steak.  You want to just brown/sear the beef, not cook it.  Put each batch aside on a plate until all of the steak is done. 


Add the beef and the juices to the sauce.  Season to taste with salt and freshly ground black pepper, and toss through the pasta.


Serve with chopped parsely and paremesan cheese!!


This dish is truly delicious!  As you can see no magic ingredients - but the taste is so much better than what you would imagine.

Dear Readers do you have a recipe that has one little basic ingredient that just lifts the whole dish to another level?  Please share it with us if you do.

I am off to do the grocery shopping now, am quite excited as I am buying Beef Cheeks today - I have thought about using them before, but shied away from them - apparently they are quite the thing now with MasterChef having used them!!  You now have to order them if you want them - they are quite cheap around $13 per kilo - so a good option.  I am going to cook them "Thai Style" - watch this space to see how it all works out!!!