Venison Ragu

Peel and chop the onions, put into a broad pan with two or three tablespoonfuls of olive oil, and start to soften over a low light stirring from time to time.

Trim and finely slice the celery and add to the onion. Trim and scrape the carrots, cut into long thin slices, very finely chop and finish off in a blender to get very fine dice. Add to the onion along with peeled and finely chopped garlic cloves. Top and tail the chillis, split lengthways, remove seeds, cut into thin strips, cut into fine dice and add to the onion.

Add a little more oil if necessary and soften all the vegetables for around 15 minutes until soft stirring from time to time.

Meanwhile use scissors to cut the pancetta into thin strips. Use a sharp knife to trim and cut the venison into small pieces (note this takes ages). Put the pancetta and beef in a frying pan, quickly brown then stir into to the vegetables.

Add a couple of glasses of red wine and reduce for a bit. Follow with three tablespoonfuls of tomato purée and enough hot water almost to cover the mixture. Add a couple of teaspoonfuls of salt and a good portion of fresh black pepper. Stir well.

Cover and simmer on a low heat for around two and a half hours, stirring adding a little more hot water from time to time. When ready re-season if necessary.

About a half hour to go, make the cream sauce if used  Recipe  . Take off the outer leaves off the romaine hearts and separate out eight or so inner leaves. Cook the pasta and just very lightly coat it with the cream sauce. Quickly saute the romaine heart leaves in very hot oil for a few minutes.

When all is ready, put the pasta and ragu on to serving plates, put a couple romaine heart leaves on each dish and serve with more parmesan on the side  Picture  .