Damn Good Short Rib Ragu (in an Instant Pot)


Date Published: Feb 27th, 2024 | Last Updated: Feb 27th, 2024
Author: Abby |Category: mains
Serves: 4-6 | Prep time: 20 mins | Cook time: 1 hour 30 mins

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After making my first ever short ribs dish through this insanely good recipe, I’ve become hooked! Short ribs was never a cut of meat I’ve worked with before and it often requires extremely long cooking times to break down the connective tissue, but praise the Instant Pot! It cuts down cooking times from 3 hours to just 1 hour and it produced extremely soft fall-off-the-bone results. If you’re unfamiliar with short ribs, you can check out my other short rib recipe for a bit of background information, including the differences between the cuts of short ribs.

This recipe is originally from Giada. I’ve altered it for Instant Pot cooking methods to cut down on cooking times and still produce identical results.

Unlike the classic braised short rib with red wine sauce, this meat is shredded then served in a slightly more subtle tomato-base sauce with a touch of Dijon mustard and a cup of red wine (rather than half the bottle). The rich meaty sauce is tossed through your choice of any style of pasta and served with a sprinkling of Parmesan cheese. The deliciously flavourful sauce with the soft shredded meats is balanced out by the pasta, making this the perfect pasta dish to make to impress. You’ll be amazed by how much flavour you can get from so few ingredients!

Anyways, without further ado, here’s the recipe! If you have any comments or suggestions, I’d love to hear from you in the comment section! You can follow me on instagram, youtube and facebook to see all the recipes I post!

Happy cooking!

Ingredients you’ll need:

  • 1.8kg (4 lbs) beef short ribs, English cut (Cross cut/Korean cut is fine too but it will take longer to sear and it’ll be annoying to remove all the little round bones at the end)
  • Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper
  • 1/4 cup olive oil
  • 1 large onion, diced
  • 3 cloves garlic, crushed
  • 5 Roma tomatoes, cut into eighths
  • 1 cup red wine – any will do, even the cheap stuff! I use cabernet sauvignon
  • 3 Tbsps Dijon mustard
  • 2 cups beef broth
  • 4-6 portions of pasta – any kind you like
  • Parmesan cheese for sprinkling when serving

Directions:

Sprinkle salt and pepper over the short ribs.

Turn your instant pot on to the SAUTÉ setting on HIGH heat. Add a drizzle of oil and sear the short ribs in batches, making sure you brown every side. Set aside the seared ribs.

Tip: Watch out for the oil splattering! A splatter guard will work wonders here and extra long tongs or extra long chopsticks will be even better to avoid getting hot oil on your hands when you turn the ribs to sear each side.

Turn the heat down to MED and add in the onion and garlic. Sauté for 2 minutes until fragrant, making sure you scrape up any browned bits from the beef on the bottom and sides of the pot (the precious brown bits give us extra flavour and the moisture from the onions will help soften it from the bottom of the pot).

Add in the tomatoes, red wine, Dijon mustard, and beef stock. Mix everything together and simmer for 3 minutes for the alcohol to cook out.

Add back in the seared ribs (from step 2) and submerge them in the liquid. Cancel the instant pot sauté setting and put on the lid. Set the instant pot to PRESSURE COOK and HIGH for 1:00 hour with 10 minutes of natural release.

When the timer has finished, turn off the instant pot and open it. You should have a very tender fall-off-the-bone short rib! Very carefully, remove all of the meat and bones into a separate bowl. Discard all the bones and use two forks to shred the meat. Cover the meat to keep warm and set aside.

Make the sauce: Once all the meat and bones have been removed, you should only have vegetables left in the liquid. Skim off any excess oil that may be floating on top. Use a stick blender to blend the liquid until smooth (you can also pour it into a blender if you don’t have a stick blender) then pour it into a saucepan or wide based pan. Turn the heat to MED and simmer for 15-20 mins to reduce the sauce until you get a thickened syrupy consistency. This will take a while because there will be a decent amount of liquid to cook down since the instant pot does not evaporate any liquid as it cooks. Once the sauce has thickened, add the shredded meat (from step 6) into the sauce and stir through until warmed. Turn off the heat.

Make the pasta: While the sauce is reducing, make the pasta according to instructions. Strain when finished and set aside.

To serve: Divide the pasta into serving bowls and spoon the sauce with meat over top. Add a sprinkling of Parmesan cheese overtop before serving. Done!

Summarized Recipe:

Damn Good Short Rib Ragu (in an Instant Pot)

Date Published: Feb 27th, 2024 | Last Updated: Feb 27th, 2024
Author: Abby |Category: mains
Serves: 4-6 | Prep time: 20 mins | Cook time: 1 hour 30 mins

Ingredients:

  • 1.8kg (4 lbs) beef short ribs, English cut (Cross cut/Korean cut is fine too but it will take longer to sear and it’ll be annoying to remove all the little round bones at the end)
  • Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper
  • 1/4 cup olive oil
  • 1 large onion, diced
  • 3 cloves garlic, crushed
  • 5 Roma tomatoes, cut into eighths
  • 1 cup red wine – any will do, even the cheap stuff! I use cabernet sauvignon
  • 3 Tbsps Dijon mustard
  • 2 cups beef broth
  • 4-6 portions of pasta – any kind you like
  • Parmesan cheese for sprinkling when serving

Directions:

  1. Sprinkle salt and pepper over the short ribs.
  2. Turn your instant pot on to the SAUTÉ setting on HIGH heat. Add a drizzle of oil and sear the short ribs in batches, making sure you brown every side. Set aside the seared ribs.
    • Tip: Watch out for the oil splattering! A splatter guard will work wonders here and extra long tongs or extra long chopsticks will be even better to avoid getting hot oil on your hands when you turn the ribs to sear each side.
  3. Turn the heat down to MED and add in the onion and garlic. Sauté for 2 minutes until fragrant, making sure you scrape up any browned bits from the beef on the bottom and sides of the pot (the precious brown bits give us extra flavour and the moisture from the onions will help soften it from the bottom of the pot).
  4. Add in the tomatoes, red wine, Dijon mustard, and beef stock. Mix everything together and simmer for 3 minutes for the alcohol to cook out.
  5. Add back in the seared ribs (from step 2) and submerge them in the liquid. Cancel the instant pot sauté setting and put on the lid. Set the instant pot to PRESSURE COOK and HIGH for 1:00 hour with 10 minutes of natural release.
  6. When the timer has finished, turn off the instant pot and open it. You should have a very tender fall-off-the-bone short rib! Very carefully, remove all of the meat and bones into a separate bowl. Discard all the bones and use two forks to shred the meat. Cover the meat to keep warm and set aside.
  7. Make the sauce: Once all the meat and bones have been removed, you should only have vegetables left in the liquid. Skim off any excess oil that may be floating on top. Use a stick blender to blend the liquid until smooth (you can also pour it into a blender if you don’t have a stick blender) then pour it into a saucepan or wide based pan. Turn the heat to MED and simmer for 15-20 mins to reduce the sauce until you get a thickened syrupy consistency. This will take a while because there will be a decent amount of liquid to cook down since the instant pot does not evaporate any liquid as it cooks. Once the sauce has thickened, add the shredded meat (from step 6) into the sauce and stir through until warmed. Turn off the heat.
  8. Make the pasta: While the sauce is reducing, make the pasta according to instructions. Strain when finished and set aside.
  9. To serve: Divide the pasta into serving bowls and spoon the sauce with meat over top. Add a sprinkling of Parmesan cheese overtop before serving. Done!