Ground Lamb and Gnocchi Ragu \\ Ground Lamb bolognese \\ Kathycooks4U

This Ground Lamb and Gnocchi Ragu will "knock your friends and families socks off"! Kathycooks4U teamed up with a special guest Sam (my son) to show you how to make one of their favorite dishes.

Cooking with Ground Lamb is simple. In this Ground Lamb and Gnocchi Ragu you will unlock the flavors of the lamb with thyme and rosemary. Red Wine adds a delicious elegant finish. Gnocchi pairs particularly well with this delicious Lamb Ragu. Eat is in a bowl with some good crusty bread.



Recipe for Delicious Lamb Ragu.

(we doubled the recipe online. It freezes great~!! This recipe is for a single batch)

1/4 cup olive oil
1 - 1 1/2 lb ground lamb
1/2 cup carrot finely diced
1/2 cup onion finely diced
1/2 cup celery finely diced
1 T tomato paste
1 1/2 cups dry red wine
1 15 oz can tomatoes
3 cups chicken broth
1 bay leaf
1/2 t ground cumin
1/2 t ground coriander
1/2 t ground fennel
1/4 t red pepper flakes
1 T fresh thyme
1 T fresh rosemary
1/2 t salt
1/4 t black pepper

to finish...
1 lb Gnocchi
2 T extra virgin olive oil
2 T butter
1/4 cup mint
1/4 cup grated Italian cheese of your choice

Heat olive oil in a large stock pot on medium high heat. Add ground lamb. Brown lamb taking off any extra liquid in the pan. We want the lamb to stick to the bottom and form crispy bits. This is flavor for our ragu!! Save the extra liquid. You can substitute this for some of the chicken broth you will add later.

Once lamb is browned add the carrots, onion, and celery. Cook a couple minutes. Stir in the tomato paste until it is has coated all the vegetables.

Add the red wine. Deglaze your pan at this time. Which means to scrape up all the brown bits on the bottom of it. You do not want to burn the lamb and then have burnt bit. Just brown... Cook until wine alcohol evaporates, about 2 minutes.

Add the canned tomatoes and the broth (and lamb juices if you reserved them). Then add all the spices, salt and pepper.

Bring the mixture to a low boil and then reduce to medium low heat for 1 1/2 hours. Do not cover! We want the liquids to evaporate leaving us a nice, rich, thick ragu. Do not have temperature so low as to not have the evaporation process occur. You should end up with a dark, rich sauce.

Cook gnocchi according to package while ragu is simmering.

Once all flavors have been melded together and your 1 1/2 hours is up, add to sauce 2 T extra virgin olive oil, 2 T butter, 1/4 cup of fresh mint.

Serve gnocchi in bowl with sauce and top with Italian cheese of your choice.

[tamlynn]

Very good recipe! I didn’t have red wine so I used a little white wine and didn’t have mint, but used everything else and it turned out delicious! Next time I’ll try it with red wine and mint. 😋