Cavatappi Short Rib Ragu
Making my first Christmas dinner: short rib ragu and a sticky toffee trifle
Jan 2, 2026
I’ve never cooked a Christmas dinner before for two reasons:
- I’m Jewish.
- We have been on vacation every year for Christmas for the past twenty years of my life excluding two times (covid (awful) and this year (not awful)).
We cut our holiday trip this year to Florida shorter than usual. So my family all ended up back at home in Maryland for Christmas.
It was December 23rd, and I asked my mom “…so what are we actually doing for Christmas this year.” I got no response. I don’t think we actually thought about it until that moment. We could order in Chinese food (what many Jews do on Christmas), but that didn’t really feel like our tradition to experience either. And that’s also, um, not really fun or festive?
Surprisingly, we turned to cooking a holiday dinner. Again, since we have no traditions or memories of a Christmas, it was sort of all bets were on for the menu. Which is sort of odd for a holiday meal: working with no sense of sentimentality around the food. But that opens the door for new traditions and new memories.
I pulled bits and bobs from a few different cuisines that felt “more Christ-massy”. Short rib ragu, chive crab cakes, blanched green beans in vinaigrette, sticky toffee trifle. Seemed appropriate enough.
Laying out all the food next to towering lit candle sticks and brambling bunches of holly, I was proud of the Christmas meal I had made. It felt special and warm and sentimental.
The short rib ragu was outrageous. I realized at the last minute we were out of parmesan cheese. I piled into the car with my cousin and zipped over to her house to lift a couple blocks of cheese. The ragu was so good I actually don’t even think it really needed the cheese in the end (but, of course, still use cheese). I shredded my short ribs into some bigger chunks, which I found as a lovely surprise, but which my mom found unappealing… so the choice is yours how shreddy you would like your meat. We had the same opinions over a chicken pot pie a few nights prior, where I shredded the chicken meat into larger chunks and left in the chicken skin. My parents both almost disowned me that night. So dramatic.
And the trifle was as outrageous too. The cherries were necessary to bring a tinge of color and acidity to the dish. I know it’s one more component that you have to cook, but without them I don’t know if the dessert would ring as balanced. Everyone was confused in my family what the dessert even was. “So is it a cake?” my uncle asked. I don’t know if any of them have ever had a trifle before. And actually now that I’m thinking about it, I believe I’ve only had one and it was at an Easter party. LOL.
So we’ll see if non-denominational Christmas dinner becomes part of my family’s tradition. My bet is: no. I think we’ll be traveling again next year. But I’ve been enjoying the time to reset and take things easy. Clear my head for the year to come. In the meantime, everyone enjoy this last week of the year (i.e. purgatory).
Merry Christmas (and happy late chanukah),
Ryan
Hey! My name is Ryan Nordheimer. Welcome to my cooking and baking site. I’m a 25-year old home cook living in the East Village in New York City. Hopefully you enjoy my food through my own, tried-and-true recipes.
Ingredients (16)
Ingredients (16)
Instructions
Preheat oven to 325°F.
Heat a large Dutch oven over medium-high heat. Pat your short ribs (5 lb) dry with paper towels, and season with 2.5 teaspoons kosher salt and lots of black pepper.
Add the oil (1 Tbsp) to the pot and sear the short ribs in batches on all sides. Take your time and build color. This will make all the difference. Remove to a plate and set aside.
Meanwhile, in a food processor, blitz the onions (3), carrots (4 medium), celery (4 stalks), and garlic (4 cloves). You’ll need to work in batches.
Once the short ribs are out of the pot, add all the veggies in. Season with a pinch of salt and cook, stirring often, until the veggies have reduced in volume by half and are sticking to the bottom of the pot, 10 - 15 minutes.
While the veggies cook, use the food processor to puree the canned tomatoes (28 oz)
Add the tomato paste (6 oz), calabrian chillies (1 Tbsp), fennel (2 tsp), and oregano (1 tsp). Continue cooking and stirring until the color deepens by a shade or two, 2 - 4 minutes.
Use the red wine (2 cups) to deglaze the pot and scrape up all the bits. Next add the tomatoes and 1 cup of water. Bring to a lively simmer over medium heat. Taste for seasoning.
Nestle in the short ribs. They should be submerged. Add a lid. Bake the short ribs in the oven until they are fork-tender, 2 hours.
When the short ribs are done, remove all the meat to a bowl. Discard the bones. Shred the short ribs into smaller chunks. I like slightly larger pieces but you can shred it finely if you wish. Add the meat back to the ragu and stir.
At this point, you can transfer the ragu to a bowl and refrigerate for up to 4 days. You’ll need about half of it for 1 lb. of pasta, so you can freeze the remaining half for later use for up to a few months.
Bring a large pot of water to a boil. Season with a handful of kosher salt. Drop in your pasta (16 oz) and give a stir. Cook until al dente.
Reserve 2 cups of pasta water, then drain the pasta.
If your ragu has been in the fridge, microwave it to warm it back up again so it doesn’t go cold into the pasta.
Drop the pasta back into the pot with 1 cup of the pasta water and the ragu. Set over low heat. Stir until the water has been absorbed. Taste for seasoning.
Transfer to a serving platter and serve with parmesan cheese.
