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Ingredients  

  • 150 ml olive oil
  • 1 large onion, or 2 small
  • 1 large carrot
  • 4 cloves of garlic
  • 1 sprig of thyme
  • 1 tsp dried oregano
  • 2 fresh bay leaves
  • 1 sprig fresh parsley, leaves and stalks chopped separately
  • salt and pepper
  • 500 g minced venison
  • 100 g pork skin / fatty pork mince
  • 2 tins good quality chopped tomatoes
  • 1 glass of red wine
  • 1 pinch of chilli flakes

Instructions

  • This takes time, a good ragu needs around 2 to 3 hours cooking, so don’t rush it. You can make a saving in time by getting the ragu going and then popping it in a low oven to simmer for a couple of hours just giving it the occasional stir, but don’t try and shorten the cooking time too much, it needs it to transform it into something truly special. If you can’t get the pork skin you can leave that out, but it will be richer and more unctuous if you can get some.
  • In a large casserole dish over a moderate heat start by adding half the oil and sweating the veggies, but not the tomatoes!) with the chopped parsley stalk, the thyme leaves and the garlic. Once they have cooked down a little scrape them all out of the pan and turn the heat up, add the rest of the oil and then the venison mince, seasoning generously. Stir the meat around a bit allowing it to brown but not allowing it to clump up too much into large chunks.
    After 5 minutes or so, reduce the heat back to a more moderate level and re-introduce the veggies, then add the wine and allow this to cookout – reduce the wine down to almost nothing, then turn down the heat, then add the tomatoes and bring the whole show to a simmer. Add the pork, along with the chilli flakes and the dried oregano, stir, simmer and reduce the heat to the lowest you can manage where you still get a little bit of gentle simmering in the pot, pop the lid on and stir every ten minutes, adding a little water if it starts to get a bit too concentrated, as you go along. Continue cooking like this for at least 1.5 hours.
  • Once your ragu has had its 1.5 hours simmering – or longer! Then remove the lid and turn up the heat a little to reduce it down to a rich, oily, savoury deliciousness – remove the pig skin and add the bay leaves. Turn off the heat and allow the ragu to just sit for half an hour before checking the seasoning and adjusting as required.