Dateline: May 28, 2020. Lamb Ragu in the Instant Pot

I had one pound of ground lamb that I needed to cook.  I could have made lamb burgers, or some other ground meat ball or patty, but that just did not do it for me today.  I wanted pasta.

So my trusty lamb ragu recipe came out.   This actually came out to be vegetable and lamb ragu.  Usually I will use 2 lbs of ground lamb.  

Lamb Ragu

1 lb ground lamb

olive oil

1/2 t baking soda

3 stalks celery, cut into bite sized chunks

2 carrots, cut into bite sized chunks

2 leeks, cut into bite sized chunks

1 onion, cut into bite sized chunks

4 cloves of garlic, peeled

handful of parsley

1 sprig of fresh rosemary

salt and pepper

2 28 oz cans of crushed or ground tomatoes

2 C chicken stock

2 bay leaves

pinch of red pepper flakes

red wine

Method

1.  Put the celery, carrots, leeks, onion, garlic, and parsley into a food processor or ninja.  Do not use a blender as you will get a puree, which is what you do not want.  You want the veggies broken down, but not liquified.  Stop and scrape down as needed.  This is your sofrito.

evaporating off the water from the meat

2.  Into the Instant Pot put the olive and set to saute.  When hot, add lamb, broken into about 5 chunks.  Sprinkle the lamb with 2 pinches of salt and pepper and 1/2 t of baking soda.  (The soda helps the meat retain water by changing it's pH).  Brown the meat thoroughly.  The meat should be well browned and scrap up the brown bits that form on the bottom of the pan periodically as there is your flavor.  You will be able to hear by ear when the water has evaporated and when the lamb is cooking in the olive oil and its own fat.  It's a very distinct sound.  At this point, pull the leaves off of the rosemary sprig and add them to the pot.  It should take about 20 minutes for the browning to happen fully.

meat cooking in the released fat

3.  Add in the sofrito after it is ground up.  You may be tempted to add more fat to the pan.  Resist at this point.    Keep stirring the sofrito around until it is well browned as well.  Add another 2 pinches of salt and a little more pepper.

This is about half way to browned

The sofrito will also take about 20 minutes to brown up fully.  Do not cheat on this, this is where the magic happens and your flavors at build up.

4.  At the bottom of the pot a brown layer will form, this is your fond.  This is culinary gold.  Push the stuff to the side of the pot and ddd 1-2 T of red wine at a time.  Adding a little bit at a time will not overwhelm the evaporation process the ragu is undergoing.  To much wine, and you have now set yourself back at a minimum 10 minutes of cooking time.

Scrape up the brown bits as you go along the bottom of the pan.  You may need to add 1 - 2 T of wine at various point along the bottom.  The wine will evaporate, and the loosened fond will come up easily after a while.  Do not give up!

5.  Add chicken stock, tomatoes, bay leaves, and red pepper flakes.  Taste, does it need salt, pepper, water, stock?  Adjust and then select pressure cook, low temp, 1.5 hours, stir well and close lid.  If you have the luck that I did, you will keep getting the burn message.  After twice getting that, I changed it to slow cook for 4 hours.  Seems to be doing alright at this moment.  Some pressure has built and I am sure it will be tasty.

We enjoyed with with romano or parmesan cheese.  The watermelon summer salad was a lovely counterpoint to the heaviness of the pasta and sauce.