I think it's delicious - I've made it (or very similar) before and it was just called Italian pot roast. And don't skip the pepperoncini - that is what makes the dish!! It ls hard to describe the flavor they add but it is not what you would expect from eating them cold.

And I guess I should confess that I would eat heated up dog food if it was served over polenta ;-) Polenta wth any kind of braised or slow cooked meat is wonderful!!!

I think it would be delicious! I've made a similar one that used a jar of pepperoncini. But where would find a can of cherry tomatoes? I've never seen those!

Sounds good to me, too. Kind of curious about the canned cherry tomatoes myself. Or did you mean canned chopped/diced tomatoes?

" And I guess I should confess that I would eat heated up dog food if it was served over polenta ;-) Polenta wth any kind of braised or slow cooked meat is wonderful!!! "

Funny, gardengal, and I feel the same way about polenta, which is why I was attracted to the recipe. As for the call for cherry tomatoes, I'm just ignoring that part. I plan to use my home canned tomatoes, mostly heirlooms, but not cherries. I've never heard of canned cherry tomatoes either. Too much trouble to skin for home canning, and I've never seen them in a store.

Thanks, everyone.

laceyvail, your own canned tomatoes sound great.

Sounds yummy to me!

I’m sure I’ve seen canned cherry tomatoes in the shops here from time to time.

I call that Italian beef...and also add a goodly splash of red wine. Prefer served in a hard roll as a sandwich....but the pepperoncini is a good thing!

Italians use a lot of tinned cherry toms.

Islay, they use them rather than Romas?

You can buy canned Italian cherry tomatoes from Amazon. However, I would probably boil a few whole cherry tomatoes for a few minutes instead and just use those. Here's a review of a different brand, Mutti. I always thought of Mutti as a German word.

Lars, I saw that on Amazon, too. I was curious and checked a little further regarding some uses for them. Easy to figure out on your own, but not sure they're something I'd buy.

https://www.bonappetit.com/story/food-editors-love-canned-cherry-tomatoes

Canned cherry tomatoes would likely be quite sweet I'd think. I'm going to stick with using my own canned tomatoes.

Let us know how it turns out!

I'm sure it will taste even better using your own tomato's, a lot less additives. I'd like to hear how it turns out also, I'm going to copy your recipe, Thanks

laceyvall -- I can tomatoes as well (but never cherries) however the methods I use, I don't peel! One is fresh and the best canned tomato I've ever tasted and the other is called crushed and you process them in the blender, skin, seeds and all and then can. So I guess one could can cherry tomatoes in either of these ways! But have never seen commercially canned cherry tomatoes

We were in southern Italy last year and it looks as if they do use the small tomatoes. Of course I was not grocery shopping, but where I was, I did not see any Roma tomatoes, but lots of the small ones. And, I do know for certain that the one food preparation tour that we had, small tomatoes were used and not Romas.

Those pickled chilies are used in Italian cuisine, but I have never found them as part of a long cooked dish. Usually, they are added to a skillet with quick cooked ingredients. One would expect that the peppers and the mushrooms would be added near the end of the preparation. Beef, cooked to where it can be shredded is a slow cook. It seems that the peppers and the mushrooms would be extremely over cooked.

I would reinterpret this to brown the beef in olive oil, add in the garlic, and add some fennel seeds and/or the Italian herb blend, to the hot oil. Then, pour in some canned peeled tomatoes and let it stew until the beef is well cooked. At this point, I can't see any advantage to adding any beef broth. It would be completely lost.

Then,I would heat some olive oil in a skillet and fry up those pickled peppers and the mushrooms, if you want. I would shred the beef and either serve the fried peppers with it, or add it to the cooked beef at this point, along with a little of the brine, and let is simmer a short while.

Personally, I would eliminate the mushrooms from this recipe. I love mushrooms, but don't think them to be appropriate for this. At least, not cooked in with it. They would be better served with the plated meal but not in it.

Sometimes the different elements of a prepared dish are lost when it all goes into one pot to be stewed. That has as many limitations as it does possibilities.

I just wanted to add that I can up tomatoes in the summer. I don't have a garden, but I do have access to a wonderful farm where I can buy in bulk.

My tomatoes are not what are called "paste" tomatoes. They are just your ordinary large tomato. But, they make a nice sweet sauce and the difference between a jar of mine and a can from the grocery store is amazing!

I have tried both with removing the skin and with the skin before canning. I think that I get a better product when I remove the skin. But, when I cook with the fresh tomatoes, I don't often remove the skin.

I keep my home canned jars for where it makes the most difference, where it will be show cased. If I am making something like a chili or something that will have a lot of other things cooked with it, I will use a can of tomatoes.

It is the favor imparted by cooking the beef with the pepperoncini and their juice that gives this dish its character. That would be completely lost if you waited until the beef was fully cooked. I agree about skipping the mushrooms, however. They don't really add anything wrt to taste or flavor.

btw, you can also find this recipe using jarred marinara sauce in place of the canned tomatoes....very little difference in taste or texture since the meat is served shredded. It also makes a great sandwich, served on a baguette or crusty roll with provolone and more pepperoncini!! I would have it over the polenta as the primary serving but save any leftovers for sandwiches.

Can I come for dinner??? I'll bring the wine :-))

By all means, gardengal! We can talk cooking and gardens. Now I just have to decide on when to make it.

You're on!! But you may have to wait for me for awhile.....major snow expected here later today and that means life as we know it is on hold for the foreseeable future :-)

I must say, I wish we were looking at snow and cold here too. Like last February, it's frighteningly warm. Last Feb. the warm spell was followed by cold. I lost a LOT of shrubs, including a huge, 15 ft across, bearberry, most of which died. It looks so awful after a full season that I'm considering complete removal of what remains.

I have found that prepared sauce in the jars to be so darned sweet. And, there is, sometimes, something in those jars that enhances the red color. So many of them contain extra sugar and "natural flavors". It is those "natural flavors" that are so suspicious. Sugar is sugar, but those "natural flavors" are a real unknown.

Still, I encourage my career/family bound daughter to make use of these shortcuts.

Things like this slow stewed beef are a good make ahead kind of a thing. It can be served in so many different ways.

My Italian MIL used to make veal and peppers. Beef works just as well. Veal is not seen much in grocery markets anymore. Anyway, it is very much like this dish, but the peppers are added near the end of the prep.

She also used to fix for FIL the pork chops cooked with the pickled peppers.

I just never could find a passion for polenta. I am more one to enjoy my cornmeal made into good low country buttermilk cornbread from an iron skillet.

So many good things to eat!!

Wednesday morning, If you can find the Rao sauces, I find they are like homemade and don't have all the extra sugar. The ingredients read like my from scratch recipes. They do cost more than say Ragu, but I feel they are worth it.

I agree jarred sauces can be way too sweet...Ragu, for sure. I've found Trader Joe's chunky "Organic Marinara Sauce" to work nicely in a pinch. It's not the least bit over sweet. Other than the tomatoes and onion, there's nothing on the label indicating sugar. I always doctor it up a bit, but it can be a good base.

Mushrooms are never "lost" in a recipe....they are a major source of umami. You may not taste mushroom...but without something is missing.

I still contend they are unnecessary. Since this is a slow cooked beef dish, and with the addition of tomatoes, there is no shortage umami and I seriously doubt anyone would think something is "missing" if they were omitted.

And somehow the idea of combining pickled peppers with cooked mushrooms is slightly off putting to me :-) It's just not a combination that sounds at all appealing.

And agree about the marinara - don't go for the cheapo brands. Good quality jarred sauces just taste tomato-y and zesty, never too sweet.

I think combining mushrooms with various ingredients depends on personal taste. I tend to be happy when they're added to most dishes. There are certain dishes (slow-cooked or not) that, IMO, wouldn't be the same without them, such as Beef Bourguignon.

Mushroom are wonderful but they are not to be slow cooked and stewed. If you are going to stew or slow roast a piece of meat until it is fork tender, those mushrooms would be cooked to oblivion.

Sometimes I will take a chicken or a piece of meat and give it a basic stew/roast/whatever in a non dictating manner and it can then be used to create different kinds of meals. A simple stewed chicken can be paired with rice or noodles or make into a pot pie. A simple piece of beef can be paired with a tomato based sauce or served with potatoes and vegetables. There are all manner of variations that can be done when you have the basic meat cooked up.

Perhaps they're meant to be cooked into oblivion, just merging with the sauce.