I thought it'd be fitting to do an Italian family recipe for my first Sometimes on Sundays blog:
Red Italian Stew & Dumplins'
Enough said, right? In my family, it is. Just stay the word stew, and we'll all pile into our cars to sit at my grandparent's kitchen table to be served some of this good red stuff. It really is that good.
What You'll Need:
Crockpot
Sauce Pan
Olive Oil
Flour
Salt & Pepper
Fresh Garlic
Stew Meat (Beef)
White Onion (2 medium size)
Celery (4 Stalks)
Baby Carrots (1 bag)
Potatoes (any kind will do -- I used fingerling)
Zucchini/Squash
Tomatoes (any kind will do -- I used cherry)
Beef Broth (8 oz)
Tomato Sauce (16 oz)
Bisquick
Milk
How To:
1. Start by chopping your onion, celery, carrots, squash (I used yellow), potatoes, and tomatoes into rustic pieces. In my case, I left my baby carrots whole, my fingerling potatoes whole, and my cherry tomatoes whole. No one is judging you on your chopping skills. Do what size feels right. I like mine to be big and chunky. When finished, set aside in a large bowl.
Red Italian Stew & Dumplins'
Enough said, right? In my family, it is. Just stay the word stew, and we'll all pile into our cars to sit at my grandparent's kitchen table to be served some of this good red stuff. It really is that good.
What You'll Need:
Crockpot
Sauce Pan
Olive Oil
Flour
Salt & Pepper
Fresh Garlic
Stew Meat (Beef)
White Onion (2 medium size)
Celery (4 Stalks)
Baby Carrots (1 bag)
Potatoes (any kind will do -- I used fingerling)
Zucchini/Squash
Tomatoes (any kind will do -- I used cherry)
Beef Broth (8 oz)
Tomato Sauce (16 oz)
Bisquick
Milk
How To:
1. Start by chopping your onion, celery, carrots, squash (I used yellow), potatoes, and tomatoes into rustic pieces. In my case, I left my baby carrots whole, my fingerling potatoes whole, and my cherry tomatoes whole. No one is judging you on your chopping skills. Do what size feels right. I like mine to be big and chunky. When finished, set aside in a large bowl.

2. Pour a generous amount of olive oil in a large saucepan and turn on high. While the oil is warming, chop your fresh garlic and set aside. Coat your stew meat in salt & pepper seasoned flour. Place chopped garlic and coated stew meat in saucepan and brown.

(Make sure your children have something to do while prepping the stew. In my case, I gave my daughter a bowl full of chopped strawberries. She was content for the 15 minutes it took to prep!)
3. Place browned stew meat into the bottom of your crockpot. Place all chopped vegetables on top of stew meat in the crockpot. Pour the can of beef broth and the can of tomato sauce on top of vegetables and stew meat. Add another can full (or so) of water in the crockpot, making sure the pile of goodness is almost covered with the water. Don't put too much water in because it will dilute the goodness.
4. Turn crockpot on low and leave to cook for 7-8 hours (or high for 4-5 hours).
5. Thirty minutes prior to chow down, follow the recipe on the back of the Bisquick box to make dumplings (2 1/4 cups Bisquick mixed with 2/3 cup milk). Randomly drop balls of dough in the crockpot. There doesn't need to be any pattern to the way you drop the dough. Just spread out the dough balls. Cover and cook for 20-30 more minutes (depends on the size of dough balls you made).
6. When dumplings are puffy and scrumptious looking, you are done!
7. Serve with a nice Italian salad, and you are good to go!
Enjoy!