Venison Ragu Recipe

British venison is one of the finest treats from our countryside, and it’s an enormously versatile ingredient. Here’s a healthy, vegetable-packed venison ragu recipe.

Venison is a beautiful meat at any time of year, but many venison recipes focus on hearty winter stews. This skit on Italian Bolognese sauce is a bright-tasting dish that works equally well in the heights of summer or the depths of winter.

An untraditional twist is the addition of minced or finely chopped mushrooms, which combine with the generous amount of vegetables to make the dish healthy, balanced and not too heavy. Worcestershire sauce adds depth and a salty tang, but you could throw in a couple of finely chopped anchovies as an alternative. The key with this dish is to dice all the vegetables as small as you can, so make sure you start with a nice sharp knife.

Feeds 4-6

Ingredients

500g Wild and Game minced venison
2 medium onions
3 medium carrots
2 sticks of celery
250g mushrooms
3 thick rashers bacon or 6 thin rashers (smoked or unsmoked is fine)
1 large glass red wine
2 tins of chopped tomatoes
3 tbsp tomato puree
1 portion concentrated beef stock/1 beef stock cube
1 tsp sugar
2 tsp Worcestershire Sauce
1 large wine glass of milk
A quarter tsp of ground nutmeg
Olive oil
Salt and pepper

Instructions

1. Finely dice all the vegetables. If you have a food processor, use that to blitz the
mushrooms to a mince-like texture instead of chopping them.
2. Heat some olive oil in a pan and fry the vegetables until soft. Cut the bacon into
small pieces (scissors are great for this) and add it to the pan.
3. After a couple of minutes, add the venison and cook until lightly browned.
4. Pour in the wine and cook for a few minutes so that the liquid reduces.
5. Add the tinned tomatoes, puree, Worcestershire sauce, nutmeg, stock cube or
concentrate portion, milk and sugar.
6. Cook gently for at least 2 hours, adding a little water if it starts to look dry.
7. Season to taste and serve with pasta of your choice.