In the Kitchen With Mattie

Tonights dinner is one I used to make many times when the boys were small, they seemed to really like the soft texture of the beef cubes which softened in the long cooking time, it is great in the winter when you could use the heat coming from the stove to help heat the kitchen. I used to serve it to them with either elbow macaroni or shell pasta so it was easy for them to feed themselves using a spoon at the time, as they grew up I switched to long or sturdy shapes and it has remained a family favorite for many years.

I remember bringing some over to a friend from Italy once and when he tried it he got tears in his eyes and said…..”OH, you made my mamas stuffato, it makes me want to go see my mama now” He loved it and said it is a common home dish over in Italy, I don’t know as I’ve never been there but I do know that most people I have made this for love it. What’s not to love though, it is beef simmered for a long time in seasonings and tomatoes and wine, the beef gets very tender and the sauce gets tremendous flavor from the beef simmering in it.

     Today I made the dish and it was going along great, this time instead of simmering it for a few hours either on the stovetop or in the oven, I decided to do it in the pressure cooker and save some time and also save myself from more heat in the kitchen during summer months. Now those of you who have and use a pressure cooker will know that you have to have the liquid component of the dish you are making loose so steam can be generated in the closed cooker without scorching and burning. Well, everything was going along great, I had finished cooking the dish under pressure and then opened the cooker when hubby called to say he would be home a little sooner than he expected. I had planned on letting the dish simmer with the cover off to allow for some evaporation of the liquid but as I was now wanting to have it ready when hubby got home I started simmering it and was going to add a bit of tomato paste to it but realized I was out of it, so I hit on the idea of adding a few sun dried tomatoes and thats where it all went wrong. Up until that point the sauce was tasting amazing, it was some of the best I had ever done and I should have left well enough alone, BUT, could I do that NO not me, I opened the pack of sun dried tomatoes I had picked up last night when we had gone grocery shopping and dropped a few into the simmering pot. Now hubby isn’t a fan of sun dried tomatoes but I love them, consequently when I do use them in a dish he will be having I leave them in large pieces that he can push aside. When the pasta was cooked and I mixed it with some sauce and put it in the platter and topped with the beef for these pictures we both were thinking what a great dinner we were about to eat.  We got our plates and each took some and started to taste it…….argh, something was seriously off in it. I had tasted it when I remove the pressure cooker top and it was wonderful it just needed to thicken up a little, so what happened? The only thing I had done was add a few sun dried tomato halves to it to thicken up the sauce a little, I went and got the bag of them and when I read the bag I realized they were “Smoked Sun Dried Tomatoes” instead of just regular ones, and these particular ones had an off putting taste. I should mention that I have used and enjoy the smoked sun dried ones as much as the regular but these had a funky taste that threw off the taste of the whole dish, I won’t ever make that mistake again. If you try this dish just remember  don’t make my mistake and put smoked sun dried tomatoes in it unless you taste them first, and like the taste of them, regular ones are fine and add a deep tomato taste to the dish.

                                                     Beef Cubes With Pasta

2 pounds beef chuck cubes, trimmed well

1 large onion diced small

1 carrot minced

1  stalk celery minced

3 cloves garlic chopped

1 teaspoon oregano

1/2   teaspoon crushed red pepper

1 cup dry red wine, I used a Barolo tonight

1 cup beef broth

1 sprig fresh thyme and 1 of rosemary tied together

2  bay leaves

A few dried porcini mushrooms, rehydrated

28  ounces crushed tomatoes

1 16 ounce can plain tomato sauce

1 pound of pasta cooked and drained

2 tablespoons good olive oil

Heat the cooker and add the olive oil, when the oil is hot add the onions, garlic, carrots, celery and oregano, saute until the vegetables are soft and a little browned. Start adding the meat in batches to brown it and remove as it is browned and add more, continue until all the meat is nicely browned, add the meat back to the cooker and add the wine and the broth, reduce the wine by half and then add the rest of the ingredients, leaving the tomatoes on top and not stirring them into the other ingredients, you want the liquids to be on the bottom of the cooker to produce steam without the chance of the tomatoes scorching. Lock the lid on the cooker and set the timer for 35 minutes with low pressure, when the timer goes off let the pressure reduce naturally. When the pressure is all gone open the cooker and stir the ingredients together, the cooker may be set to the browning setting to simmer and allow the sauce to thicken, if you want to speed up the thickening process add about 2-3 tablespoons tomato paste or a handfull of regular sun dried tomatoes. Simmer until it is as thick as you like it, stir it often so it doesn’t stick or burn. When your pasta is finished cooking you can either add it to the pressure cooker with the beef and sauce or put it in a separate bowl and mix with some sauce and then top it with the beef and more sauce as we do.