If you combine the popular Mac&Cheese recipe with beef ragout, you end up with a recipe as tasty as the one brought to us today by Juana from La Cocina de Babel . I assure you that you will succeed!
Although our bodies are asking for fresher and lighter meals at this time of year, in my house we don't give up on other types of heartier dishes. "Comfort" cooking for the whole family because it is equally popular with children and adults. Dishes that require slow cooking and that, given the pace of life that most of us lead, are sometimes difficult to prepare due to lack of time.
Today I present to you the well-known and classic Mac & cheese , but with a little twist, a delicious beef ragout hidden under the thick layer of pasta with cheese sauce that will delight the whole family and, in addition, with the great advantage that the ragout, which is a dish that requires long cooking times, this time I have prepared it in my WMF pressure cooker .
Home flavors, simple meals and everything ready in no time , because being in a hurry doesn't mean having to give up eating beautifully, right?
WMF Perfect pressure cooker and Rösle copper saucepan
Ingredients (for about six people)
For the ragout:
- 1Kg of stewed beef. I used shank, one of the parts that I like the most and find more tender for stewing, although on some occasions I have prepared it with a needle
- 200gr of flour
- Olive oil
- 1 onion
- 2 carrots
- 3 tablespoons of tomato concentrate
- 200ml of meat broth
- 200ml red wine
- 200ml tomato passata
- Salt and pepper
For the Mac & Cheese:
- 50gr of butter
- 50gr of flour
- 1 liter of milk
- 1 teaspoon mustard powder
- 200g grated cheddar
- 200g grated Emmental
- 250gr of macaroni or any short pasta
Rösle copper saucepan , WMF Perfect pressure cooker and Pallarès carbon steel knife
Preparation
- Place the flour in a large enough bowl . Using a very sharp knife on a wooden board , cut the meat into pieces of about three centimetres, peel and slice the carrots and finely chop the onion. Put everything into individual bowls or mini-cocottes .
- Heat a little oil in your WMF pressure cooker , just enough to cover the base of it. Flour the meat, shaking off the excess, and brown it in batches in the hot oil.
- Once all the meat is browned, we put it back into our WMF pot together with the onion and carrot. We sauté everything for a few minutes and add the tomato concentrate, broth, wine and passata . Season with salt and pepper and close the pot.
- We put the pot on high heat and wait for the two rings on the pot to become visible. From that moment on, the pot must be kept on the heat for 20 minutes, at which point cooking will end. It is important that the two rings are visible during this time. If we see that they go down, it may be that the heat is not strong enough.
- Meanwhile, prepare the cheese sauce by melting the butter in a heavy-bottomed saucepan . Once melted, add the flour, stirring with a wooden spoon for about three minutes to prevent lumps from forming. Add the milk little by little until it is well integrated with the flour and butter mixture. Bring the sauce to the boil and when it begins to thicken slightly (this sauce is very light), add the mustard and cheeses, stirring everything together to melt them completely. Set aside.
- In a pot, heat enough water and cook the pasta “al dente” according to the manufacturer’s instructions. Drain and add to the reserved cheese sauce.
- Once the ragù has finished cooking, turn off the heat and wait for the pressure control rings on the pot to completely lower. If you are in a hurry, one option to release the pressure is to slide the cooking slide very slowly towards the open position and once the rings have lowered and no more steam is coming out, shake the pot and open it.
- Place the ragout in an ovenproof dish and top with the macaroni and cheese sauce. Bake at 180º for about 20 minutes, or until the surface is golden and bubbly.
(Left) Tokyo Studio porcelain bowl and WMF Perfect pressure cooker ; (Right) Rösle copper saucepan
