Comfort food craving: Spicy Tomato Fennel Short Ribs

Being on vacation has a way of making you crave home-cooked comfort food, even while you’re sampling new cuisine and tasting amazing flavor combinations. By the time we got home from our trip I was channeling my inner 1950’s male and just wanted baked potatoes, pasta, meatloaf, and roast chicken…basically, anything meaty and starchy.

And thanks to my doting daddy dearest, our first night home we got just that. Meatloaf and baked potatoes, all packaged up and ready to eat. How did he know that was exactly what I wanted? Might have had something to do with the text I sent him while we were driving towards home. Something like, “Mmmmmm…birthday meatloaf?” Subtle, huh? (I feel the need to note here that my mom replied to my text, “Dream on.” Thankfully she was not in charge of the meatloaf making.)

Because of a very busy first week back and my current penchant for meat and potatoes, things have not been very exciting in the kitchen. Although my mental notebook is full of things from our trip to experiment on and I hope to get to those soon. My taste buds have been inspired by Navajo dishes (hello fry bread and honey!) and New Mexican flavors. My kitchen is now stocked with fresh peppers and their dried counterparts; I will master authentic red chile sauce…someday.

Until then, more comfort food...

Spicy Tomato Fennel Shorts Ribs over Pasta

1 1/2 pounds boneless beef short ribs

1 large fennel bulb, diced

1/3 cup chopped shallots

4 garlic cloves

1 15-ounce can diced tomatoes

1 15-ounce can tomato sauce

1 cup white wine, divided use

1/2 teaspoon red pepper flakes

salt

pepper

flour

fennel pollen (optional)

canola oil

parmesan cheese shavings

cooked pasta

Preheat oven to 300 degrees F.

Trim fat off of short ribs, then season liberally with salt, pepper and fennel pollen (if using). Coat lightly with flour.

Heat a drizzle of canola oil in a large Dutch oven until very hot. Sear all sides of short ribs until browned, then remove from pot and reserve.

Sauté fennel and shallots in the same pot. When bottom starts to brown, deglaze with 1/2 cup of white wine. Cook until soft, add garlic and cook for 30 seconds more.

Stir in tomatoes, sauce, remaining 1/2 cup of wine, red pepper flakes, and season with salt and pepper. Place short ribs in the sauce mixture and bring to a simmer. Cover and cook in oven for about 3 hours, until fork tender and falling apart.

Remove short ribs from sauce and pull apart. Serve over pasta with sauce and parmesan cheese.

If you’ve got a comfort food craving, this dish has you covered. The short ribs are ridiculously tender and the sauce is rich and flavorful with hints of anise and spice. Don’t shy away from this because the weather is getting warmer… although to look at this meaty pasta dish you’d think it was a bit heavy, the tomato-based sauce actually lightens things up a bit. I would happily eat this one year-round.