James Shugg's Beef Casserole

By special request we have been asked to post again James Shugg's recipe for Beef Casserole. He writes "If anyone tries it please let me know how it goes. But it really is a great one pot, two course dish. I "invented" it myself last month but I gather it is basically Italian home cooking. The measures are just approximate. 3kg easily feeds 8 with leftovers. You need at least 3 hours cooking time so some planning ahead is required."

Serves 8

Degree of difficulty: Medium

Preparation Time: 3 hours cooking time.

You need:
2-3kg piece of chuck or blade beef (the cheap shoulder cut, not fillet or sirloin)
olive oil
1 bulb (ie 10-15 cloves) of garlic, maybe some thyme and a bay leaf 1 large onion
1 bottle red wine
2-3 tins of chopped tomatoes
two heaped tablespoons of brown sugar.
spirelli or shell pasta
parmesan cheese
salt and pepper

1. Set oven to 180 deg C.
2. Heat the oil in a large cast iron casserole on the stove.
3. Brown the beef all over for about 10 mins.
4. Remove the beef and fry the roughly chopped garlic and onions until softened, and add the optional herbs, salt, pepper.
5. Return the beef and any juices to the casserole.
6. Add the wine, the sugar - minus one large glass (for you to drink) and the chopped tomatoes.
7. It will probably not fully cover the meat, but fine if it does.
8. Bring it up to a fast simmer.
9. Lid on tightly, into the oven and turn it down to 130-140 deg C immediately. This will keep it simmering, but you don't want it to be boiling in there!
10. Check after 15 mins it is just a slow simmer.
11. After 1.5 hours, turn the meat over.
12. Cook further 1.5 hrs.
13 Test that the meat is starting to pull apart easily. If not, cook for a further 30 mins- 1 hr.
14. Remove meat and keep warm. It will have shrunk dramatically and all the fat and connective tissue will have disappeared!
15. Put the casserole back onto the stove and bring the cooking liquid to boil.
16. Add fresh or dried pasta up to the level of the liquid (if you want to cook more pasta, you can add some boilng water but not too much).
17. Once the pasta is cooked, stir in the grated parmesan. 18. Obviously, do not drain the pasta, as you have already cooked it in its sauce.
18. Serve the pasta direct to the table in the casserole, alongside the meat or as a first course.

Serving Suggestion: Note that you can reserve some of the cooking liquid (before you boil the pasta) and make gravy for the meat, or serve with mustard/horseradish.

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