What’s not to love when you can spend 3 hours on Sunday night reading and braising a piece of juicy beef shank for the next couple day’s dinner?

Step 1: Chop organic tomatoes (on the vine from green market), then sauté the tomatoes with shallots and chopped carrots. I didn’t add celery because it wasn’t one of the items sold at green market. The ingredients get browned and softened after 5 to 7 minutes. Then pour in boiled water or stock and add fresh thyme and bay leaves for great flavor.

Step 2: Bring the pot from picture 1 to boil and turn the heat down to simmer. Add beef shank (fully thawed) into the pot with a bottle of red wine. You can add as much red wine as you want, depending on your palate. I prefer my beef stew to be strong and pungent; I added 3/4 bottle of Shiraz into the pot. 3 hours later…a nice bowl of beef shank ragú that served me 3 nights!

Step 3: Monday night, I heated up a portion of the beef ragú by stirring in a little bit of pasta water on the stove. Noodles, beef ragú, chopped parsley, grated parmesan cheese - 15 minutes - done!

Making dinner on a weekday has never been so easy!