NINJA RAGU

🥩 250g OF MINCE. 🥷 ONE NINJA. 🍷 ONE RIDICULOUSLY SERIOUS SAUCE.

I bought the Ninja soup maker for soup.

Obviously. 😂

But that was never going to last.

Give me a kitchen gadget with buttons, blades, heat and a glass jug and sooner or later I’m going to start wondering what else I can make in it. 🧪🔥

Today’s experiment?

🍝 RAGÙ.

And not just mince swimming around in a tin of tomatoes.

I wanted something darker.

Richer.

Beefier.

Proper comfort food. 🥩🍅🍷

The sort of sauce that sticks to the pasta rather than running underneath it like a tomato puddle.

And, rather pleasingly, the Ninja can make a cracking job of it.

🥷🍝🔥

Before anything else, one thing matters:

🔥 HOT FOOD MUST STAY BELOW THE NINJA HOT MAX FILL LINE.

On my Ninja Foodi Blender & Soup Maker, the hot cooking capacity is lower than the full cold-blending capacity.

So I’ve deliberately built this recipe with a bit of breathing room.

No filling it to the brim.

No bubbling tomato volcano. 🌋🍅

No redecorating the kitchen ceiling in Bolognese.

The actual HOT MAX line on the jug always wins.

If your ingredients are getting close to it, stop adding liquid.

Simple. 👍

Makes around 3 generous portions.

🥩 250g beef mince

🥓 40g smoked bacon or pancetta, finely chopped

🧅 1 small onion

🥕 ½ medium carrot

🌿 ½ celery stick

🧄 1 garlic clove

🫒 1 tablespoon olive oil

🍅 1 tablespoon tomato purée

🍅 1 x 400g tin chopped tomatoes

🍷 75ml red wine

🥣 50ml beef stock

🥛 30ml whole milk

🥄 1 teaspoon Worcestershire sauce

🌿 ½ teaspoon dried oregano

🌿 ½ teaspoon dried basil

🌶️ ¼ teaspoon smoked paprika

🧂 Black pepper

🧂 Salt to taste

🥄 1 teaspoon Marmite

🧀 A small Parmesan rind

🌶️ A pinch of chilli flakes

🍄 A finely chopped mushroom if one happens to be lurking in the fridge

Yes.

Marmite. 😎

Used carefully, it doesn’t make the sauce taste like Marmite.

It simply pushes the savoury beef flavour further into the shadows.

Exactly where I want it. 🥩🔥

Into the Ninja go:

🧅 Onion

🥕 Carrot

🌿 Celery

🧄 Garlic

Use CHOP.

I want small pieces, not vegetable wallpaper paste. 😂

Add:

🫒 Olive oil

🥓 Bacon or pancetta

Then use the Ninja SAUTÉ function.

Let everything soften.

Let the bacon start releasing its fat.

Let the kitchen begin smelling like something worthwhile is happening.

Then add:

🍅 1 tablespoon tomato purée.

Let that cook briefly too.

This matters.

Raw tomato purée can taste sharp.

Cook it for a minute and it gets deeper, darker and sweeter.

Tiny job.

Big reward. 🔥

This is the bit I will not compromise on.

Get a frying pan properly hot.

Add:

🥩 250g beef mince.

Then leave it alone for a moment.

Don’t instantly start smashing it around the pan.

Let the beef actually BROWN.

I want:

🔥 Dark edges

🔥 Caramelised bits

🔥 Proper colour

🔥 That glorious sticky stuff on the bottom of the pan

That is flavour.

Keep browning until there is no pink mince remaining.

Then pour in:

🍷 75ml red wine.

Scrape the bottom of the pan.

Get every last dark sticky bit.

Let the wine bubble away for roughly 2–3 minutes so it reduces.

What remains is concentrated flavour.

Do not abandon it.

That would be culinary vandalism. 😂

Transfer the browned mince, wine and all those lovely pan juices into the Ninja.

Add:

🍅 400g chopped tomatoes

🥣 50ml beef stock

🥄 Worcestershire sauce

🌿 Oregano

🌿 Basil

🌶️ Smoked paprika

🧂 Black pepper

Optional:

🥄 Marmite

🧀 Parmesan rind

Now stop and LOOK AT THE JUG. 👀

🔥 Everything must remain below the HOT MAX fill line.

If you’re closer than you’d like, don’t add any extra liquid.

You can always loosen a ragù.

It’s much harder to persuade it back into the Ninja after it has escaped. 😂🌋

Use a manual cooking mode at a medium heat for around:

⏱️ 30 minutes.

You want a steady cook.

Not a volcanic boil.

Occasionally give it a gentle stir or very brief pulse if needed.

But remember:

🚫 DO NOT USE THE FULL SMOOTH BLEND PROGRAMME.

Unless your evening meal plan involves drinking beef through a straw.

We’re making ragù.

Not meat soup. 😂

This is the lovely bit.

The bright tomatoes start going darker.

The sauce thickens.

The beef flavour moves into everything.

The bacon almost disappears.

The wine stops tasting like wine.

Everything starts becoming one deep, rich sauce.

That’s when you know it’s working. 🔥

About five minutes before the end, add:

🥛 30ml whole milk.

Not loads.

Just enough.

It sounds odd if you’ve never done it before.

Milk.

Into beef.

And tomatoes.

But it works.

The milk softens the tomato acidity and gives the sauce a slightly rounder, silkier flavour.

You shouldn’t think:

🥛 “That tastes of milk.”

You should think:

🤔 “Why does this suddenly taste better?”

That’s the trick.

The finished ragù should be:

🔥 Thick

🍅 Dark brick-red

🥩 Properly meaty

✨ Slightly glossy

🥄 Spoon-coating

Drag a spoon through it and the sauce should briefly hold the line.

If it’s too thick:

🥣 Add a tiny splash of stock.

If it’s too loose:

🔥 Give it a little longer to reduce.

What I do NOT want is mince floating in tomato water.

That’s not ragù.

That’s an administrative error. 😂

Yes, spaghetti works.

But for this?

I want something with shoulders.

🍝 Tagliatelle

🍝 Pappardelle

🍝 Rigatoni

🍝 Fusilloni

Something capable of grabbing hold of the sauce.

Cook the pasta until just al dente.

Then mix some of the ragù THROUGH the pasta rather than simply dropping a ladleful on top.

Finish with:

🧀 Parmesan

🌿 Basil

⚫ Black pepper

And possibly:

🍷 A glass of the red wine you’ve already opened.

It would be irresponsible not to check it. 😇

Time.

Make this earlier in the day if you can.

Let it sit.

Then reheat it later.

Somehow, ragù seems to spend those quiet hours reorganising itself into something better.

The following day?

Even better.

Day-two ragù is basically a cheat code. 🎮🍝

The original version had a little more liquid.

It would probably have fitted.

Probably.

That word bothers me when we’re talking about hot food inside a blender jug. 😂

So I’ve tightened the recipe.

The revised quantities are:

🥩 250g mince

🍅 400g tomatoes

🍷 75ml wine

🥣 50ml stock

🥛 30ml milk

That gives me a better safety margin below the Ninja’s HOT MAX line.

And there’s another benefit.

Less unnecessary liquid means:

🥩 More beef flavour

🍅 Thicker sauce

🔥 Faster concentration

🍝 Better cling to the pasta

Basically, safer AND tastier.

I’ll take that. 👍

250g

About 3

Around 10 minutes

Around 30–35 minutes

CHOP + SAUTÉ + manual COOK

Reduce the red wine in the frying pan

Brown the mince properly

1 teaspoon Marmite

A small splash of whole milk

Never exceed the HOT MAX line

Tagliatelle, pappardelle or rigatoni

Eating half of it before the pasta is ready

This is exactly why I enjoy messing about with kitchen gadgets.

The Ninja doesn’t need to replace the frying pan.

It does what it’s good at.

The frying pan does what IT is good at.

Together?

That’s where things get interesting.

🥷 The Ninja chops.

🥷 The Ninja sautés.

🥷 The Ninja cooks.

🔥 The frying pan gives the beef the serious colour.

🍷 The wine pulls all that flavour from the pan.

🥛 The milk rounds everything out.

🍝 And at the end I’ve got a proper bowl of dark, comforting ragù.

250g of mince.

A few ordinary ingredients.

One slightly overenthusiastic soup maker owner.

And dinner suddenly gets very interesting.

Would I make it again?

🔥 ABSOLUTELY.

The Ninja has officially escaped the soup department.

🥷🍝🔥🍷🥩🍅🧄🧅🧀