If you combine the popular recipe for Mac&Cheese (macaroni and cheese) with a beef ragout, you end up with a recipe as tasty as the one that Juana brings us today, from La Cocina de Babel . I assure you that you will succeed!

Although at this time our bodies ask us for fresher and lighter meals, in my house we do not give up another type of more forceful dish. “Comfort” cuisine for the whole family because it is enjoyed by children and adults alike. Dishes that require a slow fire and that with the pace of life that the vast majority of us lead, sometimes we find it 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 that is 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 ragu, 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 a very short time , because being in a hurry does not mean having to give up eating beautiful food, right?

WMF Perfect pressure cooker and Rösle copper saucepan

Ingredients (for about six people)

For the ragu:

• 1Kg of beef stew. I used shank, one of the parts that I like the most and I find it more tender to cook, although on occasion I have prepared it with a needle
• 200g of flour
• Olive oil
• 1 onion
• 2 carrots
• 3 tablespoons tomato concentrate
• 200ml beef broth
• 200ml of red wine
• 200ml of tomato passata
• Salt and pepper

For the Mac & Cheese:

• 50g of butter
• 50g 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

1. Put the flour in a large enough bowl . On a wooden board and with a very sharp knife , cut the meat into pieces of about three centimeters, peel and cut the carrots into slices and chop the onion finely. We reserve everything in individual bowls or mini-cocottes .
2. We heat a little oil in our WMF pressure cooker , just enough to cover the base of it. Flour the meat, shaking off the excess, and brown in batches in the hot oil.
3. Once all the meat is browned, we put it back in our WMF pot together with the onion and carrot. Sauté everything for a few minutes and add the tomato concentrate, broth, wine and passata . Season with salt and close the pot.
4. We put the pot on high heat and wait for the two rings of the pot to be visible, from that moment the pot must be kept on the fire for 20 minutes, at which time the cooking will end. It is important that the two rings are visible during all that time, if we see them go down, it may be that the fire is not strong enough.
5. Meanwhile, prepare the cheese sauce by melting the butter in a thick-bottomed pot . Once melted, add the flour while stirring with a wooden spoon so that no lumps form for about three minutes. Add the milk little by little until it is well integrated with the mixture of flour and butter. Bring the sauce to a boil and when it begins to thicken slightly (this sauce is very light) add the mustard and the cheeses, stirring so that they melt completely. We booked.
6. In a pot we heat enough water and cook our pasta "al dente" according to the manufacturer's instructions, drain and introduce into the cheese sauce that we have reserved.
7. Once the cooking time for the ragù has passed, we turn off the heat and wait for the pot control rings to go down completely. If we are in a hurry, one option to release the pressure is to slide the cooking slider very little by little towards the open position and once the rings have lowered and no more steam comes out, shake the pot and open it.
8. In an oven-safe dish , place the ragu and cover it with the macaroni with cheese sauce. Bake at 180º for about 20 minutes, or until the surface looks golden and bubbly.

(Left) Tokyo Studio porcelain bowl and WMF Perfect pressure cooker ; (Right) Rösle copper saucepan