Braised Short Rib Pasta

Preheat your oven to 375 F.

Place garlic cloves and quartered tomatoes on a rimmed sheet pan, drizzle with plenty of olive oil and liberally salt and pepper. Roast for 15 minutes until tomatoes are tender. Remove pan from oven and set aside. Turn off the oven at this point.

In a large heavy bottomed pot, like a Dutch oven or in my case my Le Crueset, heat a drizzle of olive oil over medium high heat. Add the bacon and cook until fat is rendered and bacon is crisp. Remove bacon from the pot with a slotted spoon and place it on a paper towel. Drain the excess bacon fat from the pot, but leave about 3-4 tablespoons in there.

Season beef short ribs with salt and pepper. Place in the pot over medium high heat and brown all sides of the ribs, about 2 minutes per side. Remove them to a plate and set aside until needed.

Add chopped onion and carrots to the pot, sweat veggies until tender and translucent, about 5 minutes. Season with salt and pepper. Whisk in flour and cook for 2 minutes. Add the tomato paste and stir it in to combine. Deglaze the pan by stirring in the red wine. Reduce heat to medium. Cook for 1 minute while stirring.

Everything should look very thickened. Remove garlic from the skins and add it into the pot. Add the sheet pan of tomatoes and all the juices into the pot. Stir it in.

Add the beef stock and stir. Bring pot up to a simmer. Add the beef short ribs back into the pot. Nestle them all into the sauce. Add the bay leaves to the sauce. Reduce heat to low. Cover pot and cook for 3 hours. Make sure to stir every so often to prevent burning. Add extra stock if necessary.

Remove short ribs and their bones to a plate. Discard bones and shred the meat.

Preheat your oven to 375 F.

Turn heat off on the pot. Remove bay leaves, if you can find them, and discard. Using an immersion blender, food processor or regular blender, blend all contents of the pot until smooth and the sauce is thick. Season with salt and pepper.

Add the shredded short rib meat back into the sauce. Cover and set aside.

On a rimmed sheet pan place the halved cherry tomatoes and quartered mushrooms, drizzle with plenty of olive oil and season with salt and pepper. Roast in the oven for 15 minutes until mushrooms are browned and tender and tomatoes are tender. Remove pan from the oven and set aside.

Cook pasta according to package instructions. When done drain off the water and drizzle with olive oil.

At this point you can do a couple things. Toss the pasta in the sauce with reserved bacon, mushrooms and cherry tomatoes or you can top the pasta with the sauce, reserved bacon and mushrooms. I personally toss the pasta in the sauce then top each serving with bacon, tomatoes and mushrooms. This helps with more even portions.

Garnish with lots of basil and lots of grated Parmesan.