Top-Rated Italian Pot Roast

Week 440. Summer 2024. I am 41 years old and standing in my kitchen — the Bench house kitchen, the one that held cancer and divorce and cinnamon rolls — and the stove is on and something is cooking and the house smells like grilled food and garden herbs and this is my life. This is the life I built.

Tom made his trout on Friday, the way he does every Friday, and the fish was perfect, and the kitchen smelled like lemon and capers, and I sat at the table and ate fish that my partner caught and cooked and served, and the being-served is still a wonder after all these years.

Mason is 13 and navigating middle school with the quiet competence that has always been his way — focused, kind, certain of who he is in a way that took me thirty years to achieve.

Lily is 11 and riding horses with the fearlessness of someone who has never considered the possibility of falling.

I made caprese salad this week. The food continues. The food always continues. It is the thread that connects every week to every other week, every year to every other year, every version of me to every other version — the woman on the kitchen floor, the woman at the chemo recliner, the woman at the grill, the woman at the outdoor table under the string lights. All of them, connected by the food they made with their hands. All of them, me.

The caprese was the right food for that particular Tuesday — quick and garden-fresh and needing almost nothing from me. But when I thought about what to cook the rest of the week, I kept coming back to something slower, something that could hold the full weight of 440 ordinary, extraordinary weeks. Italian pot roast is that kind of food: you put it together and then the house does the work, filling up with the smell of tomatoes and rosemary and red wine while you sit at the table and simply exist in the life you made. Tom caught the fish; I braised the roast. The food continues.

Prep Time: 20 minutes | Cook Time: 3 hours 30 minutes | Total Time: 3 hours 50 minutes | Servings: 8

Ingredients

3 1/2 to 4 lbs boneless beef chuck roast
2 tablespoons olive oil
1 1/2 teaspoons kosher salt, divided
3/4 teaspoon black pepper, divided
1 large yellow onion, roughly chopped
4 cloves garlic, minced
3 medium carrots, cut into 1-inch pieces
3 stalks celery, cut into 1-inch pieces
1 cup dry red wine (such as Chianti or Cabernet Sauvignon)
1 can (28 oz) crushed tomatoes
1 cup low-sodium beef broth
2 tablespoons tomato paste
1 tablespoon Italian seasoning
2 sprigs fresh rosemary
3 sprigs fresh thyme
2 bay leaves
1/4 teaspoon red pepper flakes (optional)
Fresh parsley, chopped, for serving

Instructions

Preheat and prep. Preheat your oven to 325°F. Pat the chuck roast dry with paper towels and season all over with 1 teaspoon of the salt and 1/2 teaspoon of the pepper.
Sear the roast. Heat the olive oil in a large Dutch oven over medium-high heat. When the oil shimmers, add the roast and sear without moving it for 4–5 minutes per side until a deep brown crust forms. Transfer the roast to a plate and set aside.
Build the base. Reduce heat to medium. Add the onion, carrots, and celery to the pot and cook, stirring occasionally, for 5 minutes until softened. Add the garlic and tomato paste and cook 1 minute more until fragrant.
Deglaze. Pour in the red wine and scrape up any browned bits from the bottom of the pot. Let the wine simmer for 2 minutes.
Add the braising liquid. Stir in the crushed tomatoes, beef broth, Italian seasoning, red pepper flakes, the remaining 1/2 teaspoon salt, and the remaining 1/4 teaspoon pepper. Nestle the rosemary sprigs, thyme sprigs, and bay leaves into the liquid.
Braise. Return the seared roast to the pot, pressing it down gently so it is mostly submerged. Bring the liquid to a simmer, then cover the pot tightly and transfer to the preheated oven. Braise for 3 to 3 1/2 hours, until the meat is fork-tender and pulls apart easily.
Rest and finish. Remove the pot from the oven. Discard the rosemary sprigs, thyme sprigs, and bay leaves. Transfer the roast to a cutting board and let it rest for 10 minutes before shredding or slicing. Skim any excess fat from the surface of the braising sauce.
Serve. Arrange the meat on a platter and spoon the tomato-herb sauce and vegetables over the top. Garnish with fresh parsley and serve alongside crusty bread, polenta, or egg noodles.

Nutrition (per serving)

Top-Rated Italian Pot Roast — The Food That Connects Every Version of Me