RECIPE: Comforting meaty ragu in less than 30 minutes

Comfort food needn’t take hours to prepare — not even a rich, meaty ragu. Instead of spending half a day stirring a pot of sauce, take a few shortcuts to get a meal that’s quick enough for a weeknight.

Start with the meat. You’ll want to use ground meat, beef in this case, for the speediest cooking time. To build depth of flavor, press the meat into a thin layer in the bottom of a hot Dutch oven and let it cook undisturbed. This method effectively “sears” the meat like a burger, developing an umami-packed brown crust. For even more umami, stir tomato paste and garlic- and chile-packed harissa into the meat and let them thoroughly caramelize in the pot with the heat. Giving these two pastes time to caramelize helps to develop long-cooked flavor in a matter of minutes.

For the saucy element, add fully pureed tomatoes, which most effectively meld with the meat to form a cohesive sauce. I prefer bright-flavored uncooked tomato passata (also labeled strained tomatoes) because its acidity balances the rich ground beef. Let it simmer for 10 minutes before adding cooked, drained pasta like bucatini or linguine and a big splash of its starchy cooking water to help the sauce cling to the pasta.