Baked Minced Beef Ragù with Aubergines

Name: Baked Minced Beef Ragù with Aubergines
Yield: Serves 6
Ingredients: Flour to coat the aubergine slices, sieved; 1 egg, beaten; 4 oz/112 g Cheddar cheese, grated; 1½–2 lb/675–900 g beef, stewing steak or rump, trimmed of fat and gristle and ‘minced’ in a processor but not pulverized; 1½–2 lb/675–900 g beef, stewing steak or rump, trimmed of fat and gristle and ‘minced’ in a processor but not pulverized; 1½–2 lb/675–900 g beef, stewing steak or rump, trimmed of fat and gristle and ‘minced’ in a processor but not pulverized; 3–4 tbsp olive oil; 1–2 garlic cloves, skinned and finely chopped; 3 back bacon rashers, trimmed of fat and diced quite small; 2 carrots, peeled and diced small; 2 onions, skinned and finely chopped; Salt and freshly ground black pepper; ¾ pint/420 ml red wine; A 15-oz/420-g tin chopped tomatoes; 2 tbsp tomato purée; Flour to coat the aubergine slices, sieved; 2–3 tbsp olive oil – for cooking the aubergine slices; 2–3 tbsp olive oil – for cooking the aubergine slices; Salt and freshly ground black pepper; 2 aubergines, sliced lengthways into slices about ¼ inch/0.5 cm thick

Preparation info

Serves
6

Difficulty
Easy

Appears in

The Claire Macdonald Cookbook

By Claire Macdonald

Published 1997

About

If you think, as I used to, that frying aubergines requires a vat of oil, then read on . . . I discovered a year or two ago that by dipping the slices of aubergine first in sieved flour then in beaten egg (yes, I really do mean in that order!) they absorb a scant amount of oil as they fry. I really prefer to ‘mince’ my own beef in my food processor. This dish can be made in advance and reheated to serve, and it freezes.

Ingredients

Method