When I was growing up there were a few reasons I could tell Sunday’s from any other day. The first thing was that it was the one day out of the week that I could actually get to sleep in with no alarm. Which was great, but even better than that, was waking up to the smell of bacon cooking in the kitchen. Followed shortly by the wonderful aroma of sauteed garlic and onions. This is the start to the Sunday sauce. My Dad always called it Sunday gravy, which these days is controversial. That is what he knew and that is what we knew growing up. I don’t really care what you want to call it; you can call it sauce, gravy, sugo, tomato sauce… call it what you call it. The fact of the matter is it smells amazing and to me, it smells like home.
I want to create these same meals and memories for my family. I want my girls to smell bacon cooking on Sunday and know that it is Sunday. We usually do Sunday Breakfast with the Monti’s. Today we had to skip it because we had a sick kiddo and it was not happening after being up all night and having her still in pain this morning, but we normally rock out some bacon and/or sausage with eggs, pancakes, French toast of some kind, or something to pair with that meat. My husband loves when I do skillets. The girls love straight eggs or French Toast. I like anything with bacon! Yet, we have pretty much set the standard of them waking up to the smell of bacon and something on Sunday mornings.
We have also set the standard that Sunday is for family and pasta! We almost always eat pasta on Sunday’s. That was a tradition for us and it is no surprise at all that it was a tradition for my Italian husband as well. We obviously grew up with different ways of making that sauce, even different names for it. We grew up with different ways of making meatballs and braciole and what pasta is used. Surprisingly, it was not too different and it was simple to merge the two and make an amazing mash up of that Sunday “Sugo”/”Sauce”/”Gravy” that our girls will know as their traditional one that they love.
Over the years and as working in professional kitchens and pushing the envelope, I have really come to love braised meat sauces. I have another recipe on the site for a slow cooked pork ragu that is incredible. I wanted to make something today that was traditional, but nontraditional at the same time and incorporate that braised meat feel.
Today I made a beautiful braised beef ragu that is very similar to the slow cooked “Sugo” that my husband grew up on, yet it has a little more chunky and rich feel, and a surprise ingredient that gave it a real depth that was surprising and lovely.
Chef Tip- when braising meats, always sear your meat first and get a dark crust on it. Season the meat heavily and deglaze the pan after you add the tomato paste with acid or wine.
Here is the recipe for the Braised Beef ragu that we ate this evening. My oldest daughter is not a big meat eater, so I pulled a ladle full out prior to shredding the beef and pureed that down and she absolutely loved it. It had really amazing beef flavor and all of the complex layer of the sauce, without the meat actually being in the sauce. The rest of us ate it with the beef and it was so so so good! My husband was commenting all day about the smell in the house and we took the girls outside to play and he was like, “Oh my gosh, you can even smell it out here!” It really took me back to those childhood days of smelling that incredible aroma and getting in the kitchen with my Dad!
I hope that you enjoy this recipe as much as we did and I hope that it helps you create some wonderful food memories with you and your family. Remember, Sunday’s are for family and pasta! Some bacon int he morning never hurts either!
Braised Beef Ragu
Ingredients
- 1 1/3 lbs chuck roast
- 3 tbsp olive oil
- Kosher salt to taste
- freshly cracked black pepper to taste
- 1 small white onion
- 4 cloves garlic crushed and diced
- 1 small can tomato paste
- 1 cup plus 2 tbsp beef stock if not using homemade, use low sodium
- 2 tbsp balsamic vinegar
- 1 28oz can crushed tomatoes San Marzano recommended
- 1 28oz can diced tomatoes San Marzano recommended
- 3 Sprigs Fresh thyme
- 1 small bunch Fresh basil
- 1 each bay leaf
- 1 small bunch Fresh parsley
Instructions
- Heat the olive oil in a medium or large dutch oven. Season your chuck roast heavily with kosher salt and freshly cracked black pepper. Sear both sides of the meat in the olive oil until you get a nice brown crust on both sides. It will take about 6-8 minutes per side. Remove the beef from the pan and set it on a plate for now.
- Once you remove the beef from the pan, add the diced onion and garlic and saute until fragrant. This will only take about 4-5 minutes.
- Add in the can of the tomato paste. Let the tomato paste slightly begin to brown on the bottom of the pan, but not burn.
- Deglaze the pan with the beef broth. Then mix the additional 2 tablespoons of beef broth with the balsamic vinegar,(surprise ingredient). Add this mixture to the pan and cook with the stock and tomato paste for about 8-10 minutes until the mixture has slightly thickened.
- Add in the fresh herbs, crushed and diced tomatoes and check for seasoning. Add kosher salt and freshly cracked pepper, if needed. Stir together.
- At this point, add the beef and any remaining drippings back into the pot. Cover with the cover slightly off and let simmer for about 3-4 hours or until the beef is tender enough to pull apart with two forks.
- Once the beef is tender enough to pull apart, after about 3 1/2 hours or so, pull the meat out and pull out all of the herbs. Shred the beef completely with two fork and add it back into the sauce. Check for seasoning once again. Add kosher salt and freshly cracked black pepper, if needed.
- Keep the sauce simmering until the pasta is cooked. Serve over the pasta immediately and ENJOY!!! I recommend Pappardelle pasta for this or homemade noodles. This is even better the next day and you can save any for leftovers later in the week.
