Slow Cooker Beef and Onion Ragu (Pasta Genovese)
This traditional Italian beef ragu is amped up with onions and made incredibly easy in a slow cooker. Perfect for Sunday dinner!
Growing up, I don’t remember having any other type of pasta sauce other than the traditional red sauce that my grandma used to make. It was mostly a marinara; she would often simmer it with spare ribs for flavor, so little bits of pork would often be mixed in, but she never made a thick meat sauce. Once I got older and started eating Italian food at restaurants, I discovered alfredo, vodka sauce, and my absolute favorite – my father-in-law’s meat sauce.
The first time I actually tried a true ragu (a super thick meat sauce with only a tiny bit of tomato paste or sauce) was a few month ago when my father-in-law tried a new recipe. It was absolutely delicious and a great change of pace, so when I came across this recipe for Pasta Genovese in Cook’s Country that featured a beef and onion ragu and it was made in a slow cooker, I immediately put it on the menu for Sunday dinner.
Pasta Genovese is a signature dish in Naples, Italy, and different from a traditional beef ragu in that it uses a lot of onions to flavor the sauce. There are two keys to keeping the onions from overpowering the final dish – the first is pre-cooking them to draw out some of the moisture, and then letting them to a very long, low roast in the slow cooker, which almost caramelizes them.
In additional to the onions, this ragu also includes a vegetable paste with salami and pancetta (mmmm) for even more amazing flavor. The result is a beefy, slightly sweet sauce with a hint of tomato and a lot of seasoning. It went perfectly with the rigatoni and a lot of Romano cheese!
Serving a new type of sauce to a family of Italians can be hit or miss (everyone has their old favorites!), but this was incredibly well-received at dinner… everyone adored it and thought it was a great change of pace. I loved that I could throw all of this in the slow cooker the night before and not have to make a mess of the kitchen on Sunday morning. Score!
If you like Italian food and want to try a different type of sauce, give this Pasta Genovese a try!
One year ago: DIY: Homemade Mayonnaise
Four years ago: Salted Espresso Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies
Slow Cooker Beef and Onion Ragu (Pasta Genovese)
Ingredients
For the Sauce:
- 1 pound (453.59 g) to 1¼-pound boneless beef chuck roast, trimmed and cut into 1½-inch pieces
- 2 teaspoons salt, divided
- 1 teaspoon black pepper, divided
- 2 pounds (907.18 g) yellow onions, chopped coarse
- 2 ounces (56.7 g) pancetta, chopped coarse
- 2 ounces (56.7 g) salami, chopped coarse
- 1 small carrot, peeled and chopped
- 1 small celery rib, chopped
- â…“ cup (80 ml) dry white wine
- â…“ cup (83.33 ml) water
- 4 tablespoons olive oil, divided
- 2 tablespoons tomato paste
- 1 tablespoon dried oregano
For the Pasta:
- 1 pound (453.59 g) rigatoni
- 1 tablespoon salt
- 2 ounces (56.7 g) Pecorino Romano cheese, grated (1 cup)
Instructions
- Sprinkle the beef with 1 teaspoon salt and ½ teaspoon pepper and place in the bottom of a 6-quart slow cooker.
- Pulse the onions in a food processor until finely minced, about 15 pulses, scraping down the sides of the bowl as needed. Transfer the onions to a large bowl and stir in ¼ teaspoon salt. Cover and microwave for 5 minutes. Drain onions in a fine-mesh strainer, pressing with a rubber spatula to extract excess liquid. Return the drained onions to the now-empty bowl.
- Process the pancetta, salami, carrot and celery in the now-empty food processor until ground to a paste, about 45 seconds, scraping down the sides of the bowl as needed. Transfer the pancetta mixture to the bowl with the onions. Stir the wine, water, 2 tablespoons of the olive oil, tomato paste, oregano, ¾ teaspoon salt and ½ teaspoon pepper into the onion mixture until thoroughly combined.
- Pour the onion mixture over the beef in the slow cooker, covering the beef with the mixture. Cover and cook until the beef is fully tender, 8 to 9 hours on low (or 5 to 6 hours on high).
- Bring 4 quarts of water to a boil in a large pot. Add the pasta and 1 tablespoons of salt and cook, stirring often, until al dente. Reserve ½ cup of the cooking water, then drain pasta.
- Using a potato masher, mash the meat until coarsely shredded into bite-size pieces. Stir in the Romano cheese and the remaining 2 tablespoons olive oil. Transfer the pasta to the slow cooker and stir to combine with the sauce. If too thick, thin the sauce with the reserved cooking water as needed. Season with salt and pepper to taste and serve.
Notes
Did you make this recipe?
Leave a review below, then snap a picture and tag @thebrowneyedbaker on Instagram so I can see it!
This sauce is simmered in my slow cooker right now, it smells so so so yummy! Can’t wait to try it!
Hi Michelle I haven’t got a slow cooker, could I use my pressure cooker instead.  Your recipe looks divine. Thanks
Can this Recipe do without brown sugar, and just Honey ?
Hi Barbara, This recipe doesn’t call for brown sugar or honey?
I don’t know what I did wrong, but it came out with WAAAAY too much watery liquid, which diluted the flavor somewhat. I did what the recipe called for with the onions and the strainer, so. . . .any ideas about what happened?
Hi Erica, Did you add in all of the reserved cooking water? If so, that is just meant to be used to thin it out if it’s way too thick. Did you use a different cut of beef? Just wondering if perhaps it cooked off more liquid?
I used the chuck roast and didn’t put in any of the reserved cooking water.
Made this today sans the carrot. How did I not have at least one carrot in my house?! Had too many chores to get done to run to the store so I carried on. Put everything in my trusty old, old crock pot and went to work on my chores. Hours later, I was starving and only had to make some pasta and put the finishing touches on the sauce. Dear Hubby ate the wedge of Pecorino Romano. Used some grated Parmesan instead. This Ragu was delicious. What a nice change from our standard tomato sauce. Thank you so much for this blog!!
Hey there!
This looks absolutely delicious and I just have to try it! However, pancetta is extremely hard to find here and if I can, it is very expensive. Wold it be possible to use bacon? Should I cut and fry it first before blending?
Thanks,
Liz
Hi Elizabeth, Yes, you could use bacon. Do not cook it first, you want to blend it in “raw”.
I made this today since Hubby and I spent the day cleaning the basement (cement dust from jack-hammered floors, grime from backed up drains, etc.). I did NOT want to think about cooking after such a grimy job. I used a brisket I had in the freezer (put in the ‘fridge to thaw yesterday) and skipped adding cheese & olive oil at the end. Instead of pasta, I made sandwiches on kaiser rolls, served with homemade dill pickles and watermelon/mint/chevre/balsamic salad. OMG – amazingly delicious!!! It was sort of Sloppy Joes, but much, much better.
There are plenty of leftovers, so I will probably add the cheese & olive oil to serve over pasta tomorrow night. Hubby loved the sandwiches so much, he might veto pasta again tomorrow. ;-)
Thank you! This definitely goes in the “Keeper” folder.
This looks divine! New pasta recipes are always welcomed with open arms in my kitchen :) Thanks for the great recipe–can’t wait to try it!
Michelle,
Instruction 6 says, “Using a potato masher, mash the meat until coarsely shredded into bite-size pieces. Stir in the Romano cheese and the remaining 2 tablespoons olive oil.”
Do you mean to stir the cheese and the olive oil into the mashed meat or the pasta?
Thanks & have a great day,
Bettina
Hi Bettina, You stir the cheese and olive oil into the mashed meat. Then, as directed in the next sentence, you add the pasta to the mixture and stir to combine.
Thanks for the quick reply, Michelle! What an interesting recipe – I’ll enjoy making it.
Looks fabulous! Is it best to mix the meat with the pasta and cheese or place the meat on the pasta and sprinkle with the cheese as pictured. I can’t wait to try this. We have never had anything like it so that really makes it exciting. Thanks!
Hi Marla, I mixed the full amount of cheese into the meat, then stirred in the pasta, as directed. I just garnished with a little extra sprinkle of cheese :)
This looks amazing. It is going on this week’s menu. The meat would be good on a hard roll for sandwiches.
Tis comment is totally off topic but a friend responded to an email I sent her yesterday regarding the new season of The Great British Baking Show on PBS…started this past Friday night at 9pm. In her response, she mentioned another PBS show called The Nine Months That Made You. She said…”It’s a fascinating program that explores, in amazing detail, week-by-week (and even day-by-day) fetal development and what makes each of us human and uniquely ourselves. We watched the first episode last week and found it really enthralling. ” It is on Wednesday evenings at 10pm, FTI!
Hi Nancy, Thanks for the heads up!
Hi Michele,
My neighbor was spot on…I watched Episode #2 of The 9 Months That Made You
Wednesday night. It was so informative and spell binding. It really underscores how miraculous the creation of each unique human truly is.