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Nourishing Beef Stew in rich Tomato sauce

by Micaela Harrasser

Desperate (= dark and cold) times call for warm, nourishing and delicious dishes. Like this beefy stew, simmered in a rich tomato sauce until you can break the meat down just with a fork! And I love that you can make a big batch and eventually freeze it to have a ready meal later on.

For this version you will need a slow cooker to let it cook gently for hours. Alternatively, you can use a pressure cooker for a couple of hours. Third option, you can cook it in the oven at low temperature (150C) for about 2h, then chop it and finish it up in the tomato sauce in a pan for about 30 minutes.

The beef: you have ample choice here so go for what you like! Even lean cuts will get tender after such long cooking times! I would still add the marrow and the bone. They do give loads of flavor and richness to the dish!

I would pair this fabulousness with a carb-rich side. This can be a nice potato mash, roasted potatoes, or a vinegary potato salad (click here for my version). You can also pair it with something more interesting, like potato gnocchi or small spinach gnocchi (spätzle, click here for the recipe!) to add some greens to the plate! 😉

[ratings]

Nourishing Beef Stew in rich Tomato sauce

Serves: 4x as main Prep Time: Cooking Time: Nutrition facts: 200 calories 20 grams fat

Ingredients

  • 500g beef (cuts of choice)
  • 1 big bone with marrow inside (schenkel)
  • soffritto (1 onion 1 carrot 1 celery stick, finely chopped)
  • 1/2 glass red wine
  •  400g chopped tomatoes (I use Mutti)
  • 1/2 vegetable cube stock
  • Extra virgin olive oil
  • Salt, pepper, nutmeg, sweet paprika a generous sprinkle each
  • 1 bayleaf

Instructions

  1. First, take the meat(s) out of the fridge, cover with salt pepper and some oil and leave it on the counter to warm up to room temperature (about 30 min).
  2. Next, sear the meat by cooking it on a very hot surface until browned. You don't need to add extra oil since you already added it to the meat.
  3. Once done, add the red wine and keep the heat high to let the alcohol evaporate. 
  4. While it cooks, finely chop the celery, onion and small carrot to make the soffritto.
  5. Add them with little oil to your slow cooker and start cooking them.
  6. Once you cannot smell the alcohol from the wine anymore (after about 5 min), transfer the meat and wine to the slow cooker. 
  7. Add the chopped tomatoes, the crushed vegetable cube stock, the bayleaf, salt and spices.
  8. Stir everything well, then cover and let it cook at max intensity for 3-4h.
  9. After this time, open the lid and with the help of two forks shred the meat into smaller pieces.
  10. Also check that the marrow has melted and it's now nicely incorporated into the sauce.
  11. Mix everything well, cover and keep cooking for an additional hour.
  12. It's now ready to serve! Pair it with a simple, carb side like roasted or mashed potatoes, gnocchi or spatzle. 

Notes

Storage: it can keep in the fridge in an airtight container for up to two days. You can eventually freeze the meat down once it has cooled down completely.

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