Italian Pot Roast

The first time I tried this recipe was a sunday and my husband was going to be in a meeting until about 5pm. That left me all alone for about 6 hours. So I decided to keep myself busy by making a traditional sunday dinner (something we had not had since we moved away from family). I looked through the freezer to see what meat we had and then through cookbooks to see what recipes looked good. I came across the recipe for Italian Pot Roast in Carol Fenster's cookbook "1,000 Gluten-Free Recipes". It used meat I had and did not have any weird ingredients, like orange rind. (Please don't put orange in my food. Not in cookies, on chicken... I just don't like the taste.) The recipe called for boneless chuck roast, but all I had on hand was bone-in and I wasn't about to go to the store. So I used what I had and it was delicious.

Last Sunday my husband had another long meeting so I decided to make Pot Roast again.

Preheat the oven to 350 deg F with the rack in the middle postion. Rub the roast with 3/4 tsp salt and 1/2 tsp pepper. In a large stock pot, that is all metal and has a lid, heat 1 Tbps oil on medium and sear the meat on all sides.

Add 1 finely chopped onion, 2 minced cloves of garlic, 1 cup water (the recipe calls for wine, but we don't like the wine aftertaste and water works just fine), 1 undrained 14oz can petite diced tomatoes, 1 Tbps basalmic vinegar, 1 tsp sugar, 2 tsp Italian Seasoning, 1/4 tsp crushed red pepper, and 1 bay leaf.

Cook over medium heat until the sauce starts to simmer. (I don't know why, but when I uploaded this photo it got flipped and I can't figure out how to unflip it.)

Cover pot and place in the oven. Cook for 2 hours.

Remove from the oven and let it rest for 10 minutes. Transfer the roast to a plate and cover with foil to keep warm. (When handling the pot remember that it is extremely hot. Use hot pads when removing the lid and moving the pot. I didn't think about it and tried to treat the pot like I usually would and I burned my fingers.)

 

 Remove bay leaf and skim any unwanted fat from the sauce. Heat the sauce on medium heat. Make a slurry of cornstarch and cold water. Add the slurry slowly to the sauce while stirring until the sauce thickens. (The recipe says to discard all but 2 cups of the sauce, but it is so good that I thicken all of it and use the leftover sauce on chicken, etc.)

Slice the roast and serve with the sauce.

We had it with Garlic Mashed Potatoes. I ran out of energy at this point so I didn't make any other veggies to go with it.

When we had it again Monday night I looked in the fridge and found some leftover veggies. I heated them to add to the meal. There was only enough leftover Garlic Mashed Potatoes for maybe one serving so I made some instant potatoes. You know a meal is good when your husband says, "That sauce makes even Potato Pearls taste good." Too bad that was our last chuck roast. I guess I need to watch the grocery store ads so we can buy some more.