Sous-vide Short Rib Ragu with Pasta

This was inspired by this recipe and it gives a meal that's the closest I've had to an amazing Spag-bol that Tristan Welch's Parkers Tavern has on the menu. The sous-vide and blow torch might be specialist equipment, but it's equipment that I've already got and it's my recipe blog, so...

Ingredients

• About 700g of bone in beef short rib, should be 2 ribs
• 400g of pressure cooker tomato sauce
• 200g dried pasta, such as taglitelli
• 1 red sweet bell pepper

Method

1. Seal the short rib in a vacuum bag and place in a water bath at 85 degrees Celsius for 24 hours.
2. At this point it's ok to freeze the beef and leave it for a future date, just make sure it's fully defrosted before going to the next steps.
3. Put the tomato sauce in a pan with the juices around the beef in the sous-vide bag. If you've chilled/frozen the bag since cooking then you might need to use your finger to move the congealed sauce off the beef rib.
4. Use a couple of forks to remove the meat from the bones and shred it, putting the bones in the pan of tomato sauce, and throwing away any big bits of connective tissue from around the bones.
5. Simmer the tomato sauce for at least ten minutes to reduce the mixture.
6. While the sauce simmers, put a pan of water on to boil for the pasta and then cook the pasta according to instructions.
7. As the pasta cooks, use a blow torch to char the outside of the pepper and put in a sandwich bag for a few minutes to steam.
8. Rub the charred skin off the pepper under a running cold water tap.
9. Slice and finely chop the sweet red pepper into 5mm squares.
10. Once the sauce has reduce for 10 minutes, add the red pepper pieces and shredded beef.
11. Stir the sauce until it's well mixed.
12. Spoon the meat mixture on top of the pasta and then serve topped with some grated grana padana and steamed green vegatables, such as brocolli.

Serves 3 to 4 people.