The Pioneer Woman's Short Rib Ragu Is 'One of the Best Pasta Sauces' She's Ever Had

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We’ll be the first to admit that most of the time when we have pasta with meat sauce, we’re using marinara from a jar and ground beef as the meat of choice. But sometimes, we find ourselves craving a restaurant-style, hearty pasta dish, the kind that makes you think of a loving Nonna spending the entire day cooking dinner for the family. Well, it turns out, it doesn’t have to take an entire day to make a decadent and memorable Italian dinner your whole family will love. That’s thanks to the pressure cooker, and seeing as Ree Drummond, also known as The Pioneer Woman, recently created a pressure cooker for Walmart, it makes sense that she’d have the perfect pressure cooker short rib ragu recipe up her sleeve.

Drummond shared her short rib ragu recipe on Instagram, where she told fans that it’s “one of the best pasta sauces I’ve ever had.” The good news is that she included instructions for making this recipe on the stove top, too; the even better news is that if you do use a pressure cooker, it will take a little less than two hours to come together, compared with the 4-5 hours you’ll need to set aside for the stove top version.

Here’s how she makes this rich, meaty pasta sauce. First, she seasons short ribs, then sears them to build up a savory, meaty flavor. Then, she pressure cooks (or simmers) the meat with the usual suspects: onion and garlic, tomato paste and canned whole tomatoes, red wine, and red pepper flakes. After 50 minutes, Drummond removes the short ribs and removes the succulent meat from the bone, shreds it, and adds it back to the pot.

Drummond cooks the sauce for an additional 10 minutes in the pressure cooker (or 30 minutes on the stove), to ensure all of the flavors meld together and that the short ribs are really tender.

Toss with your favorite pasta, be it a box of rigatoni or some fresh fettucine, top with cheese, and you’ve got a restaurant-worthy meal in the comfort of your own home. You could also toss the sauce with cooked ziti and bechamel, then bake it for an ultra-comforting meal that also freezes well. And, thanks to the pressure cooker, you won’t actually have to spend all day at the stove to make this dinner for your family.

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