You guys, I’m totally in love. With this yummy tomato-saucy braised BEEF ragu. As in beautifully browned and slow cooked meat. Like, what is even going on in the best possible way.
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Tried this tonight and it was great! I had no idea that polenta was so easy! I bet this would be a good meal (minus the polenta) to freeze, as well.
Susan
As evidenced by recipes like these overwhelmingly Veggie Lentil Curry Bowls with cashew sauce, I am a self-declared most-of-the-time-vegetarian. I don’t really LOVE love chicken (it’s okay, haters gon hate) and I definitely doesn’t do large cuts of meat unless they are going to become perfectly golden brown and crispy Crockpot Carnitas which will then ultimately serve as a vehicle for mass quantities of cilantro, beans, cheese, and guacamole. After 5 years worth of posts, I could count the Pinch of Yum beef recipes on one hand.
But tadahhh! Look at me, Mom! I’m becoming a grown up who likes recipes called Crockpot Braised Beef Ragu with Polenta.
**POLENTA**
How do I love thee? Let me count the ways.
- It can be soft and sort of mushy-like (my favorite).
- It can be hard and sort of chewy-like (Bjork’s favorite).
- It’s just made with cornmeal – like literally if you have cornmeal in your house right now, you can make it. WHAT ARE YOU WAITING FOR.
- It’s cheap (see #3).
- It only takes three seconds to make which means I can quickly get back to InstaStalking my friends.
- It goes with anything, like, for example, this here CROCKPOT BRAISED BEEF RAGU yummy.
- I feels ultra fancy when I tell people I’m making polenta. Pinkies up!
- It begs for a pat of melted butter, which is end of story for me. ♡
About a year ago, Giada and/or Giada’s ghost writers taught me how to make polenta from scratch. Right – from scratch, so I’m not talking about the premade tube of polenta from Trader Joe’s, which I most definitely have purchased and enjoyed in the past. Today I’m talking about a bubbling pot of homemade polenta on your stove. Bjork loved it so much and my wannabe-foodie-but-likes-easy-recipes soul loved it so much that I’ve never ever looked back. If you haven’t tried polenta, now is your time.
Chili on polenta, poached egg on polenta, braised beef on polenta, oh my.
Unrelated to polenta and all that is wonderful about braised beef ragu, I want to say one more thing that’s kind of a big deal to me:
As of today, like, this very day, I’m going to live and eat and do my thing for 60 days without refined sugar.
Whoaaaaa! Yep. Crazy food lady is back.
This summer Bjork and I participated in a 60-day course called Go Sugar Free where we learned about the effects sugar has on the body and ways to form lasting habits that allow us freedom from sugar (and that link is an affiliate link because we highly recommend the way Jacqueline supports, teaches, and inspires through this course). You can read the recap post about our previous experience with the course here. I had been toying around with the idea of rejoining the course for a while, thinking like hey! I sort of enjoyed that little experiment, and maybe I should do it again… but then yesterday I actually decided to get serious about it, and I looked up the details for the next course, and guess what? It starts TODAY. So I recommitted myself just in time for the start of this round, and Bjork, by some really awesome husbandly miracle, has decided to take the jump with me.
There are a lot of reasons that I’ve decided to do this again, but the top two reasons are that 1) I just genuinely like how I feel when I eat good, real, unprocessed food without all the sneaky added sugar, and 2) I am extremely inspired by the personal and professional (?) challenge of making really, really, really good recipes that taste good, period. No sugar required. It gives me a little happy zing to think that I can create veg-heavy healthier recipes without refined sugar that will resonate with a mainstream audience of busy home cooks. Like, lentil curry? Seriously? You guys, too? And here I thought I was the only one.
If the challenge of creating recipes without sugar can help us enjoy a superdelicious + healthy lifestyle, I am ALL OVER THAT.
Okay but just a quick leetle disclaimer: Friday’s post is going to sugar-bomb your world (no regrets! no regrets.), and then after that, we’ll be free and clean of sugar for the next 60 days, and if I do my job as a food blogger well, you’ll forget I’m even doing anything different. Aha! Trickery.
Now, back to the beauty of Crockpot Braised Beef Ragu and Polenta. This is warm, cozy, and saucy. It’s tomato-tangy with perfect San Marzano Italian canned tomatoes and richly flavored with red wine, bay leaves, and nice little pinches of basil and oregano. The beef is tender, the polenta is semi-firm and perfectly textured, and the specks of bright green parsley are pretty to look at.
Also, you guys, you must put a last minute hunk of goat cheese on top of this. Not negotiable. Creamy, tangy, and absolutely heavenly.
Hello Dinner I SEEEEE YOOOOU.
Crockpot Braised Beef Ragu with Polenta
- Total Time: 7 hours 50 minutes
- Yield: 10 1x
Description
Crockpot Braised Beef Ragu with Polenta! Browned meat with canned tomatoes and flavored with red wine, bay leaves, and pinches of basil and oregano.
Ingredients
For the Braised Beef Ragu
- 2 tablespoons olive oil
- 3 lbs. beef rump roast or round roast
- half a yellow or white onion, minced
- 3 cloves garlic, minced
- 2 28-ounce cans San Marzano whole tomatoes (see notes)
- 1/2 cup red wine
- 3 tablespoons tomato paste
- 1 teaspoon basil
- 1 teaspoon oregano
- 2 bay leaves
- 2 teaspoons salt
- black pepper to taste
For the Polenta
- 6 cups water
- 1–2 teaspoons salt
- 1 3/4 cup yellow cornmeal
- 3 tablespoons butter
Instructions
- Optional, but for best tasting results: Heat the olive oil in a large, deep frying pan. Add the beef in one whole piece and fry on each side for about 5 minutes, turning until the whole exterior is golden brown. I had some splattering issues so I covered the pan with a lid.
- Place all remaining ingredients with the beef in a crockpot or slow cooker (5 quart size worked for me). Cover and cook on low for 7-8 hours. When the beef falls apart easily when pulled at with two forks, it is ready. Shred the beef into pieces and give it a good stir.
- For the polenta, boil the water and add the salt. Slowly add the cornmeal, whisking constantly to avoid lumps. The polenta will start to thicken quickly. Continue whisking or stirring for 2-3 minutes before removing from heat. Stir in the butter until melted (you can also add cheese I’M JUST SAYING). For solid and chewy polenta, pour into a rectangular dish, let cool for 15-20 minutes, and cut into pieces. For softer polenta (my preference), serve scoops of polenta immediately before it has hardened.
Notes
I’ve done this a few ways in terms of the tomato sauce — I’ve used two cans, with one drained and one undrained. I’ve used two full cans, both undrained. And I’ve used just one can, undrained. So it can work a lot of different ways – it just depends on your desired meat-to-tomato ratio for the sauce.
- Prep Time: 20 mins
- Cook Time: 7 hours 30 mins
- Category: Dinner
- Cuisine: Italian
Keywords: beef ragu, crockpot recipe, polenta recipe, beef and polenta
One More Thing!
This recipe is part of our collection of yummy beef recipes. Check it out!
Hi! This looks absolutely delicious. And sounds like a perfect start to a new year of healthier eating for me and my husband. I have one question…
I know it says it’s 10 servings, but any way I could find out how much a single serving is? I’m in desperate need of controlling my calorie intake AND portion control.
Thanks for this delicious and easy recipe! It’s now a staple in my house and saved my sanity trying to cook postpartum. Always impresses guests!
I had such high hopes for this recipe. The pictures look delicious. I will say that the beef was perfectly tender and easily broken apart with a fork. Unfortunately, that’s it. This dish was bland. You primarily tasted tomato. It was tomato with beef in it. That’s it. 2, 28 oz cans of tomato is way too much! I wound up adding another 1/4 cup of cabernet and one packet of Lipton Onion soup mix to add some flavor and help cut the tomatoes a bit. There was no beef flavor in the dish which was surprising after slow-cooking a 3 lb roast for 6 hours!
Can you use Chuck roast?
I’m usually such a POY fan but this one was a miss for me. It was under seasoned and a lot of the liquid seemed to get absorbed so wasn’t very saucy. I think putting salt and pepper on the meat before browning would’ve helped.
Thanks for sharing this feedback with us, Zoe!
I was so excited for this because it smelled so good. After 10 hours in the crockpot the meat was still chewy. Cooked for an additional 4 hours and still just as bad. Waste of money!
I made this today. I decided to go the whole 9 yards and brown the meat. Of course that meant I had to listen to the smoke detector shriek for 15 minutes. I’ve heard claims that meat can be browned without the alarms but I have no personal experience of that. It was worth the noise! Even my picky son liked it.
This is delicious. I added made a smaller recipe. Added a diced carrot. Celery and some brown sugar to cut the acidity. The polenta is perfectly paired.
I’ll definitely make this again.
This looks sooo good! We are expecting snow this weekend and I want to make it while we are hunkered down to warm us up. We don’t love chunks of tomato and I was wondering if we could use cans of crushed tomatoes instead of the whole tomatoes?
For sure!
So since the tomatoes are whole, do you break them up when you’re shredding the meat?
Hi Amber! You can break them up. They will also cook down and sort of melt into the sauce too!
Such a delicious and satisfying meal. We devoured it! So easy.
This was good, but I would definitely drain at least one of the cans of tomatoes, as it was extremely watery. You could also do a whole small onion. Would love some suggestions on how to add more veggies to it without them tasting mushy.
This is so delicious! I always make this as the recipe instructions. Thank you!
So glad you enjoy the recipe, Cindy!
I used the rump/round roast but it was too tough when it came out of the crockpot and unshreddable. Next time I will use a chuck roast with more marble for less cooking time.
Thanks for the feedback! If this happens again, keep adding more time until the beef is tender and shreddable.
What kind of red wine do you suggest? Also the piece of meat I got has a strip of fat on one end do I cut that off?
We usually use cabernet. Up to you on whether or not to cut the fat off. It may add some nice flavor to the dish, and would probably be easier to separate from the meat after cooking.
Hi!
I know this is from super long ago but I found this while searching for a polenta recipe. I noticed on a handful of other websites the polenta takes about 20 minutes or so, why does your recipe only take about 3??? We made it your way anand loved everything so I’m just curious what the longer cook times will do.
Hi Lisa! Polenta doesn’t actually need to cook that long, especially if you give it a taste after a few minutes and the flavor and texture are to your liking! I’ve learned that cooking polenta longer gives it a sweeter and deeper corn flavor.
My rump did not come apart with forks. I had to use a electric knife. The flavors are good.
Maybe you already know about this, but I would be remiss if I did not let you know about cooking polenta in the oven, the no-stir method. 1 cup of polenta, 4 cups broth or liquid and salt into a greased, oven safe dish. 350-400 degrees. 30-40 mins, maybe stir once in the middle. Don’t burn yourself when you pull it out and add cheese when you pull it out. Done. Much easier than stovetop.
Awesome! Thanks for sharing, Elizabeth!
This looks amazing! I’m hungry just looking at it! They are so delicious and yummy. Thanks for sharing your information.
It was perfect the first time. I learn so much from you as well! Keep it up great post.
Glad you enjoyed this!
I used a 2.4 lb round roast, and it came out not tender at all 🙁 Maybe not the recipe’s fault, but it was also a little bit bland for my liking
So sorry to hear this, Tanya. Thanks for taking time to share this feedback with us!
This is perfect on a cold night! I had a piece of frozen, grilled tenderloin that I used, thawing first. Shortened the cooking time. Added the goat cheese as suggested-sublime!
We agree! The perfect cozy meal to have on a cold night. Glad you enjoyed this, Martha!
Fantastic recipe of the day. Thanks for sharing.
Cheers
David Cruise
I have made this a number of times. Always delicious. Freezes beautifully.
Made this for a dinner party and it was fantastic! Everyone loved it!