As the weather starts to get cooler this pasta ragu will warm you up - make sure you buy quality sausages from a local market

Ingredients (serves 6-8)

1kg beef topside diced
4 pork sausages
2 carrots - diced small
2 stalks of celery diced small

5 cloves of garlic crushed/p> 400ml of red wine

1 heaped tablespoon of tomato puree

3 cans of chopped tomatoes

250mls of water

bouquet garni of 1/2 bunch rosemary & half bunch thyme

chopped parsley leaves & grated parmesan to serve

Method

seal off beef in 250g batches in a hot large pot until well browned

Drain all the beef and leave to one side

In the same pot saute off the vegetables and garlic for 10 minutes until soft. Add the meat back to the pot and pour over the red wine

Reduce the wine by half. add the tomatoe puree, decrease the heat to low and cook for 5 minutes. add the tin tomatoes and juice, water and bouquet garni mix well and simmer for 1 hour.

After 1 hour seal off sausages in a seperate pan, slice into 2cm rounds and add to the ragu, cook for another 40 minutes or until beef is tender

To serve

Pour over perfectly cooked rigatoni on a serving platter

sprinkle with chopped parsley & freshly shaved parmesan

drizzle with good quality olive opil and serve on the table with warm crusty bread