Ingredients
- 600g beef short rib, deboned
- 1tbs vegetable oil
- 100ml red wine
- 400ml beef stock
- 1tbs tomato paste
- Sea salt and black pepper
- 1 large carrot
- 1 fennel bulb
- 1 onion
- 3tbs olive oil
- 1tsp thyme leaves
- 30g butter
- 30g plain flour
- 300ml of braising liquid
- 40g grated Parmesan
- 1 pack of large, fresh lasagne sheets (about 40cm x 20cm)
- Preheat the slow cooker to high. Cut the beef into four or five chunks. Heat a frying pan to a high heat and add the vegetable oil. Add the beef and cook for three to four minutes, turning regularly until brown all over, then remove from the pan and place in the slow cooker.
- De-glaze the pan with the red wine, reducing the liquid by half and scraping up any bits from the base of the pan with a wooden spoon. Then add all this to the slow cooker along with the beef stock. Add the tomato paste and stir. Season with salt and pepper, then place the lid on and cook on high for four hours.
- After four hours when the beef has softened, remove it from the liquid and allow it to cool. Keep all the braising liquid from the slow cooker and pour it into a large jug: we will use some of this to make the sauce. When the beef has cooled, tear it into small pieces and set aside.
- Peel the carrot and dice it into small cubes. Cut the base off the fennel bulb, then dice into pieces the same size as the carrot pieces. Peel and dice the onion. Heat a frying pan and add the olive oil. Add the diced veg and thyme leaves and cook on a low heat for four to five minutes until just starting to soften. Season with salt and pepper, then remove from the heat.
- To make the sauce, melt the butter in a small pot and add the flour. Stir together with a wooden spoon and cook out on a low heat for two to three minutes. Then add 300ml of the reserved braising liquid and cook on a medium heat for five minutes, stirring regularly, until the sauce thickens and begins to bubble. Lower the heat and stir through the grated Parmesan, then check the seasoning and remove from the heat.
- Place a fresh soft lasagne sheet on a chopping board. Place a row of the beef pieces across the top of the sheet, leaving a gap of around an inch between the beef and the top of the sheet. Roll the pasta sheet over on itself to form a tube with the beef on the inside, then slice the tube into one-inch rolls. Do this process a few times to have enough to fill the terracotta dishes. Place an even layer of the rolls face up in terracotta dishes. Spoon some of the sauce on top of the rolls, then top with a spoon of the par-cooked diced veg. Place in the oven on a pre-heated baking tray and bake at 185 degrees for 30 minutes until caramelised.
