Porcini and Red Wine Pot Roast

Photo courtesy of playfullibrarian on Flickr

It seems as though after a long week of work all I want to do is make something comforting on a Sunday. This past week was busy with social and work dinners, and I wanted to assemble a dish that took little preparation time, but was still hearty. Wishing the weather was a bit more brisk; I still had my heart set on braised meat.

After giving our pup a long and well-deserved walk that morning, I stopped at our local Italian butcher and purchased a four pound piece of chuck roast. Intent on making a home-cooked comfort meal, I set out to keep things simple, but full of flavor.

In between catching up on work and personal things, I perused the Internet for approachable recipes that utilized pantry ingredients and didn’t require a lot of additional purchased produce. Luckily, I stumbled across a Porcini and red wine pot roast on Epicurious

Chad was working all day, so the idea was to put something on the stove early and have it ready when he came home. The recipe I settled on was relatively straightforward, (though I improvised a bit), browning the meat on all sides, sautéing onions, celery and carrots with garlic, tomatoes, mushrooms and wine and letting it simmer together for about three hours.

When the meat was tender and just about falling apart, I removed it from the oven and let the sauce reduce a bit more. In the meantime, I boiled egg noodles until they were al dente and once cooked, tossed them with lemon zest, chopped parsley, olive oil and butter.

I plated simply in bowls. Noodles first, topped with pot roast and pan sauce and garnished with chopped Italian parsley. We cracked open a bottle of Oregon Pinot and toasted to a well-deserved meal after a relentless week.