Pot roast is a comfort food staple and this recipe for Slow Cooker Red Wine Pot Roast is easy and delicious and perfect for Sunday supper! Grab the recipe plus check out my cookbook review of Whatever Happened to Sunday Dinner? A Year of Italian Menus with 250 Recipes That Celebrate Family.
Today’s cookbook review is for Whatever Happened to Sunday Dinner? A Year of Italian Menus with 250 Recipes That Celebrate Family, by Lisa Caponigri, and is one I love for many reasons! Not only are all the recipes I’ve tried so far some of the best things I’ve made in ages, I love the messaging behind this book.
Growing up dinner time was always an important part of my family’s day, the time that despite our busy and hectic lives we could all come together and reconnect. And even though we tried to make dinner time together an important part of every day, Sunday night dinner was the most important and special, as that was the one day of the week that my working Mom actually had time to spend in the kitchen, thus the one night we had a delicious homemade meal, and not leftovers or something quick like a store-bought rotisserie chicken or frozen lasagna.
And that’s exactly what this cookbook is all about! It is a collection of recipes from an Italian family and their stories and memories about getting together every Sunday night for supper!
Lisa’s Famous Three Meat Meatballs (page 88)
I also love this cookbook because Eric’s family is Italian and I see many similar stories and recipes in this cookbook that I have experienced over the years with his family. While I grew up eating and cooking Italian food and have always loved it, through Eric’s family and this cookbook I have been able to learn more about authentic Italian food and recipes. In fact, I made Lisa’s Famous Three Meat Meatballs recipe (page 88 in the cookbook) for a big family birthday dinner, and Eric’s Mom said that it was the best meatballs she has ever eaten. From an Italian that is HUGE!
Here are all the details:
Pictures: Some. This recipe has over 250 recipes and so not every recipe is photographed, with actually only one recipe per “menu” (there are 52 menus, one per week) and a number of ingredient photos.
Prep Time, Cooking Time, and Number of Servings listed: No
Nutritional Information Provided: No
Clear, easy to follow directions and ease of preparation: This cookbook contains a mix of recipes. Some are super simple, like things you don’t really need a recipe for, more just a serving idea, but other recipes have very detailed instructions and multiple steps.
Easily available ingredients and budget friendly: For the most part, most of these recipes contain readily available ingredients, but I would say only about half of the recipes could be considered budget friendly. There are several recipes that use veal, lamb, expensive seafood (like mussels and halibut) and other more expensive or hard to find ingredients, like hazelnuts, wine, etc.
Chickpea Minestrone Soup (page 276)
Variety of recipes: This is an Italian cookbook, filled with many classic Italian recipes. Since the cookbook theme is Sunday Supper, all the recipes are dinner recipes like appetizers, side dishes and salads, entrees and dessert.
Special feature: The way this cookbook is set up is it is broken down by menus, 52 complete Sunday Supper meals, including appetizers, side dishes/salads, entrees and desserts for each week. This is awesome, because the author has already do the hard work of figuring out what dishes go well together and complying complete dinner menus.
However, while this is a great feature and helps make this cookbook unique, it does make this cookbook hard to navigate when you are trying to just browse just desserts or just side dishes, etc.
I also like that all of the recipes have the Italian name as well as the American name of the dish.
So far I have made (all pictured):
Slow Cooker Red Wine Pot Roast (recipe below)
Lisa’s Famous Three Meat Meatballs (page 88)
Chickpea Minestrone Soup (page 276)
Other recipes I have bookmarked:
Nana’s Strufoli (Italian style doughnut holes) (page 309)
Ricotta Turnovers (page 39)
Cannoli (page 183)
Sicilian Mixed Salad (page 26)
Chicken Vesuvio (braised chicken with potatoes and artichokes) (page 130)
You can purchase Whatever Happened to Sunday Dinner? A Year of Italian Menus with 250 Recipes That Celebrate Family, by Lisa Caponigri, here.
Of the recipes I tried, I decided to share the Slow Cooker Red Wine Pot Roast recipe, because growing, pot roast for dinner on Sunday was an almost weekly occurrence at my house. This Italian style pot roast recipe is slow cooked to perfection, until it is super tender and falling apart. Finish it off with a robust red wine gravy from the cooking juices, some mashed potatoes and green beans and you have a perfect Sunday Supper!
Pot roast slow cooked to tender juicy perfection in a red wine sauce.
- 2 tablespoons canola or grapeseed oil
- 1 (2-3 pound) boneless beef round, shoulder roast or chuck roast, trimmed of excess fat
- 1 teaspoon each kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper
- 2 shallots, or 1 small red onion, diced, diced
- 2 stalks celery, sliced
- 2 large carrots, peeled and sliced
- 2 garlic cloves, minced
- 1 teaspoon dried thyme
- 1 teaspoon dried oregano
- 1 1/8 cups dry red wine, divided
- 2 tablespoons cornstarch
- Heat oil in a large skillet over high heat. Season chuck roast on all sides with salt and black pepper. Add roast to skillet and sear until golden brown, browning well on all sides, about 3-4 minutes per side.
- Transfer browned roast to slow cooker. Add shallots, celery, carrots, garlic, thyme and oregano to slow cooker. Pour 1 cup red wine over roast and vegetables. Cover and cook on low for 8-9 hours or on high for 5-6 hours.
- Once meat starts to fall apart, remove roast from slow cooker and pull it apart with two forks.
- Meanwhile, transfer the red wine cooking liquid and vegetables to a small saucepan. Heat red wine sauce to medium-high heat and cook for 2-3 minutes.
In a small bowl whisk together cornstarch and remaining 1/8 cup (2 tablespoons) red wine to form slurry. Stir slurry into red wine sauce and cook for an additional 3-4 minutes or until thickened. Serve red wine gravy as is or transfer to a blender and blend until smooth, if desired.
- Serve pot roast with red wine gravy.
Serving Suggestion: Serve over a bed of Roasted Garlic Mashed Potatoes and with a side Green Bean Salad with Cranberries, Walnuts and Feta or Braised Peas and Green Onions.
Recipe inspired by and adapted from Whatever Happened to Sunday Dinner?
Other Whatever Happened to Sunday Dinner? cookbook reviews and recipes:
Pomodorini Ripieni Di Pesto- Cherry Tomatoes Stuffed with Pesto and Pasta Alla Carbonara- Pasta with Eggs and Bacon {Lick the Bowl Good}
Nana’s Ricotta Cake and Ricotta Cookies {A Well-Seasoned Life}
Baked Caprese Salad with Tomatoes and Mozzarella {The Messy Baker}
Pomodori Arrostiti con Aglio – Roasted Plum Tomatoes with Garlic {Cookbook Papers}
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