Prep time 15 min  
Cooking time 6 hrs
Serves 4

Ingredients

150g red onion, finely diced
4 large cloves garlic, finely chopped
150g celery, finely diced
100g carrot, finely diced
100g mushrooms, finely diced
½ cup decent dry red wine
2 handfuls Italian parsley, finely chopped (save half for garnish)
1 heaped tsp dried parsley
1.5 cups of passata
1 tsp beef stock powder or paste
salt and pepper
500g whole beef cheeks
1 tbsp cornflour 
4 serves rigatoni pasta
Parmesan, shaved

Method 

Turn slow cooker on high and add red onion, garlic, celery, carrots and mushrooms. Pour in red wine. Add fresh and dried parsley and passata. Stir in beef stock, salt and plenty of pepper. Add beef cheeks to the bottom of the slow cooker and cover as much as possible with the sauce. Place lid on slow cooker and cook for 6 hours or until meat pulls apart and the sauce is thick.

Turn the meat and cover with sauce every couple of hours if possible. Add a small amount of boiling water and stir through anytime the sauce becomes too thick or starts to stick to the bottom of the slow cooker dish.

If you need to thicken the sauce just before serving, mix a tablespoon of cornflour into a small bowl with just enough cool water to make a thin paste. Pour into the slow cooker whilst still cooking on high and stir evenly into the sauce. Replace the lid for 10 minutes. In the meantime boil pasta and drain.

When ready to serve, pull the meat apart with 2 forks until shredded apart and mix through the sauce. Add pasta to the slow cooker and stir it through the sauce. Serve with parmesan and fresh parsley garnish.