Italian Beef Rollups

Marathon Monday is next week, and the whole city is already vibrating with that particular Boston energy — half excitement, half PTSD from 2013. The hospital is prepping extra staff for the route, which means my schedule got shuffled, and I ended up pulling a double on Tuesday that left me so tired I put my car keys in the refrigerator and didn't find them until Wednesday morning when I reached for the milk.

My patient Mr. Chen is responding to treatment, which is the kind of news that keeps you going in oncology. His wife — Mrs. Chen, though she asked me to call her Lily — brought an extra thermos of congee on Thursday. "For you," she said, pressing it into my hands. "You look tired." I am tired. I am always tired. But I sat in the break room and ate Lily Chen's congee, which was rice and ginger and chicken broth so clean and simple it felt like medicine, and for ten minutes I wasn't tired. Food does that. It stops time, just for a moment, just long enough to remember that you're a person and not just a pair of hands changing IV lines.

Sean D. and I went apartment hunting on Saturday — not together, not yet, we're not there yet, but he came along because his lease is up in July and he's thinking about moving closer to Southie. We looked at a two-bedroom on West Broadway that smelled like someone else's cooking — curry, I think, layered into the walls the way years of meals do — and I liked it immediately for that reason alone. Sean D. said, "You want to live in a place because it smells like dinner?" I said, "That's the best reason to live anywhere." He laughed. He has this laugh — big, open, fills the room — and I am completely, stupidly gone for him.

Sunday at the three-decker, Maureen made fish and chips because it's Lent and she's Catholic in the way that Southie is Catholic, which means selectively devout and absolutely rigid about the fish-on-Friday thing. The batter was crispy, the cod was perfect, and Patrick drenched everything in malt vinegar the way he always does, which Maureen calls "a crime against cooking." I love these people. I love this table. I love that every Sunday smells like whatever Maureen decided the world needs this week.

I left Maureen’s that Sunday thinking about how some places just hold you — the smell of frying batter, the sound of Patrick drowning everything in malt vinegar while Maureen protests, the particular kind of easy that comes from a table where you always have a seat. I’ve been trying to re-create that feeling in my own kitchen lately, maybe because apartment-hunting makes you hungry for something that already feels like home. So here’s the recipe I’ve been making on repeat — Italian beef rollups, the kind of low-and-slow project that fills your apartment with exactly the right smell for three and a half hours and gives you twelve portions of something worth sitting down for. It’s not Maureen’s fish and chips, but it’s the same idea: a meal that says stay awhile.

Prep Time: 1 hr | Cook Time: 3 hrs 30 min | Total Time: 4 hrs 30 min | Servings: 12

Ingredients

3 pounds beef chuck
1 teaspoon Kosher salt
1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
1 large onion sliced into thick slices
6 tablespoons tomato paste
1/2 cup bold red wine such as merlot
1 14.5-oz can crushed tomatoes
1 teaspoon dry basil
1 teaspoon dry oregano
2 cups beef stock or broth
2 cups leftover mashed potatoes*
2 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon kosher salt
Flour for rolling the roll-ups
3 cups crushed tomatoes
12 slices provolone cheese
3 cups shredded mozzarella cheese
1/2 cup freshly grated Parmesan cheese

Instructions

Preheat the oven. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
Season the beef. Salt and pepper all sides of the beef.
Sear the beef. In a medium heavy bottomed Dutch oven over medium high heat, add oil and sear the beef on all sides, about two minutes per side.
Cook the onions. Remove beef and add onions and cook two minutes.
Add tomato paste. Add tomato paste and cook for another two minutes.
Build the braising liquid. Add the wine, deglaze then add the crushed tomatoes, dry basil, dry oregano and stock.
Braise the beef. Nestle the beef back in, cover and cook 1 1/2 hours. Turn beef over in the pot, cover and cook another 1 1/2 hours.
Shred the beef. With two forks, shred beef into the liquid. Set shredded beef aside or if making a day ahead, refrigerate.
Make the dough. Make the rollups by mixing the mashed potatoes, flour and salt to form a dough.
Portion the dough. Roll into a log and cut into 12 pieces. Roll each piece into a ball.
Roll the dough. Flour your counter and roll the dough balls into a 7-inch circle with a rolling pin. They are easy to roll so I just rolled as I cooked.
Cook the rollups. Heat a medium to large nonstick saute pan over medium and once hot, lay out one rollup and cook for 1-2 minutes per side. Have another one rolled and ready and remove the first one and replace with a new one. Repeat for all 12, wiping the pan of any flour a few times during the cooking process. If using right away, loosely cover with plastic and set aside. If making ahead, stack on a plate, cover with plastic and refrigerate.
Prepare the sheet tray. When ready to assemble, preheat oven to 350 degrees F and line a sheet tray with parchment paper. Cover the parchment with about a cup of the crushed tomatoes.
Add the cheese layer. Lay out the 12 rollups on your counter and cover each with a slice of provolone cheese (cut the slice in half and lay the two halves end to end to cover to the edges).
Add the filling. Heat the filling in the microwave if cold and divide the filling equally between the 12 rollups, about 1/3 cup or more each.
Roll and arrange. Roll each tight and line up on the sheet tray, seam down.
Top with sauce. Spread the remaining two cups of crushed tomatoes over the tops of each.
Add mozzarella. Divide the shredded mozzarella evenly over the tops of each.
Add Parmesan and bake. Sprinkle the tops with the Parmesan cheese and bake for 20 minutes.
Broil and serve. Place under the broiler until browned and serve.

Nutrition (per serving)

Italian Beef Rollups — The Kind of Meal That Makes a Kitchen Feel Like Home