Braised Beef Shank Pasta

Braised beef shank pasta is easily one of my favorite things I’ve ever made, and wonderfully easy to make! This recipe for a fantastic beef shank pasta is comfort-food reinvented.  

I’m getting that Halloween feeling in my bones right now. It feels like I’m in the movie “Hocus Pocus” and I’m totally giving in to the feeling, 100%. It makes me so happy. Am I the only one who gets this feeling?

You know, where you step outside and you can somehow smell Halloween and the air feels a little more wispy than usual. That feeling is one of my favorite things in the world. I just want to watch all the 90s Halloween kids’ movies right now, back to back---Hocus Pocus, Bedknobs & Broomsticks, The Haunted Mansion, the one where the Olsen twins go to gammy’s house...

And I completely miss trick-or-treating. Absolutely love the whole thing. If only I could go trick-or-treating without being asked, “Shouldn’t you be at some party or something?” An elderly neighbor man definitely didn’t say that to me when I was 16 and dressed as a doll with hot pink lipstick-covered cheeks and big frizzy pigtails (thanks, puberty!), wearing my big sister’s old, traditional Persian skirt that my mom had sewn for her Nowruz dance recital in 1995. And I definitely wasn’t riding up to each house on a Razor scooter, with my mom speed-walking alongside me because I didn’t want to go at it alone.

Needless to say, high school was maybe not my peak. Probably more of a trough.

You’re wondering what the hell any of this has to do with my recipe for beef shank pasta. Yeahhh, no, the answer is nothing. It doesn’t. Except that this pasta is probably perfect for these Halloweenie-feels days and it loads you up with delicious, really healthy fat and protein-packed comfort food. Eat the bone marrow in the beef shank bones if you only do one thing in your life after this, please.

Discarding the marrow will only turn me into a puddle of tears. And I’m sort of like the Halloween Santa marrow police that knows if you’ve been good and eaten your marrow, or if you’ve been bad and totally lost your shot at stealing any of the good chocolate out of your child’s/little brother’s/kid you’re babysitting’s bag of Halloween candy. Lump o' Necco wafers, anyone?

Bone marrow is simply too healthy and too precious to be throwing it away. Also, if you’re worried about it being “fatty”, then don’t. It’s got an incredibly high concentration of monounsaturated fatty acids and it’s got a ton of protein, made up of complete amino acids. You’re not gonna find that variety of protein from beans. And if you don’t care for any of my reasons for eating it, just take Anthony Bourdain’s---"meat butter”. Full stop.

This beef shank pasta is so rich and so flavorful, you’d believe it to be only for special occasions. But to be completely honest with you, it’s one of those recipes that is so unbelievably simple to make and requires so little effort, even though the cook time might seem long. Well it basically just consists of sticking meat in the oven until it’s ultra tender.

Easy peasy. And the tomato flavor that’s in the recipe deepens so much, giving the pasta a really nice mellow, roasted tomato taste, that in combination with the beef flavor, ever-so-slightly coats the fettuccine. And those bones give such an amazing flavor to the beef as it’s cooking, and now I have to go because the level of salivation that’s currently going on is getting uncomfortable.

Try my easy weeknight ground beef, tomato, and garlic pasta!

Another perfect weeknight pasta recipe is my one-pan pasta!

Try my delicious roasted kale chip garlic parmesan pasta!

Subscribe to my YouTube Channel HERE

And if you want a heads up whenever I post a new recipe, subscribe to my free newsletter by entering your email near the top-right of the page or way down at the bottom of the page!

Love and happiness to all of you! And Happy Halloween!!

Recipe

Print

Braised Beef Shank Pasta

Braised beef shank pasta is easily one of my favorite things I’ve ever made, and wonderfully easy to make! This recipe for a fantastic beef shank pasta is comfort-food reinvented.

Course dinner, lunch, Main

Prep Time 15 minutes minutes

Cook Time 4 hours hours

Total Time 4 hours hours 15 minutes minutes

Servings 8

Calories 148kcal

Author Honest and Tasty

Ingredients

• 4 Bone-In Beef Shanks
• 4 tablespoons Ghee (Clarified Butter)
• 1 large Onion chopped
• 1 tablespoon Sea Salt
• ½ teaspoon Black Pepper
• 1 teaspoon Turmeric Powder
• 28 oz Crushed Tomatoes 1 can
• 1 ½ cups Water
• 16 oz Fettuccine Pasta 1 package
• Parmesan to top the pasta
• Red Chili Flakes optional
• Chopped Parsley optional

Instructions

• Preheat oven to 350ºF (177ºC).
• To a large and heavy oven safe/cast iron pot over medium-high heat, add 2 tablespoons of ghee.
• When oil starts glistening and gets hot, add the beef shanks without crowding them.
• Brown on each side.
• Remove the beef shanks to a plate when browned. Work in batches, adding the rest of the ghee as needed.
• Turn heat to medium and add the chopped onion, salt, pepper, and turmeric. Mix for about two minutes with a wooden spatula.
• Mix in the crushed tomatoes and use your wooden spatula to help deglaze the bottom of the pot.
• Turn the heat off.
• Add the beef shanks back in with all its juices from the plate.
• Add the bones. Move the ingredients around in the pot to coat the beef shanks with the tomato sauce.
• Add the water. The water should almost completely cover the beef shanks.
• Add a heavy and secure lid to the pot, and place it in the oven for 3 ½ hours. After 1 ½ hours, take the pot out and quickly make sure there’s still water in the pot so that your beef shanks do not burn. Add more water if necessary and place the lid back on. Put the pot back in the oven for the remaining time. The beef shanks should be very tender.
• Once the beef shanks are ready, make the fettuccine pasta by boiling a large pot of water, adding plenty of salt, and adding in the pasta.
• Cook until al dente (they should still have a bit of a bite to them).
• Remove the bones from the beef shank pot and enjoy the marrow with a fork and nothing else. You can also add the marrow back into the beef shanks if you’d rather.
• Discard the bones.
• Toss the pasta into the pot of beef shanks.
• Top with parmesan cheese, and maybe some chopped parsley and some red chili flakes. Enjoy!

~~If you enjoyed this recipe, please rate it below and subscribe to my YouTube channel for more videos!~~

Notes

Note: If you don’t have a heavy cast iron/oven safe pot with a heavy, secure lid, you can use a pressure cooker instead. Just skip the oven part and cook for about 30 min under pressure, or until tender.

Nutrition

Calories: 148kcal | Carbohydrates: 4g | Protein: 12g | Fat: 9g | Saturated Fat: 2g | Cholesterol: 20mg | Sodium: 908mg | Potassium: 232mg | Fiber: 1g | Sugar: 1g | Vitamin C: 1mg | Calcium: 15mg | Iron: 1mg