Pot Roast with Bacon & Pancetta Potatoes

*Post by Angela.

With temperatures outside still in the high 60s, low 70s, it's hard to remember that we're well into winter. Back east, that meant soups, stews, and slow-cooked meats, and I'm not quite willing to let it go. Thus, Sunday was all about making a quintessential cold-weather comfort food, pot roast. To ensure the maximum food coma for a lazy weekend evening, I paired the roast with bacon & pancetta potatoes from Giada.

List of ingredients for the pot roast:

• 4 lbs boneless chuck roast
• Salt, pepper and Italian seasoning
• 2 tbsp olive oil
• 1 large yellow onion, thinly sliced
• 6 garlic cloves, peeled
• 3/4 cup red wine (I used Cabernet), plus a little for deglazing
• 3 large carrots, peeled and cut into big chunks
• 3 medium turnips, peeled and cut into big chunks

First, I generously seasoned the beef with salt, pepper, and Italian seasoning, then tied it together with butcher's twine. I don't often use twine to tie my meats, so I generally suck at it. Doesn't really matter, but there's photographic evidence of my suckiness, so I thought I would mention it from the get-go.

I heated the olive oil in a large pot over medium high heat, and seared the roast off, about 4-5 minutes per side, sealing in the juices and giving the meat a wonderful golden brown color.

I removed the meat to a plate, then added in the onions and garlic, along with a splash of red wine to deglaze the pot. I made sure to scrape the yummy bits off the bottom of the pot, and sauteed the onions for just a couple of minutes. 

I added the meat back into the pot on top of the onions and garlic, and poured in 3/4 cup of the wine. Then I brought the liquid up to a simmer over medium heat.

I covered the pot and turned down the heat to the lowest temperature possible to maintain a very gentle simmer. If you have a gas grill, the flame should look about like this:

I let the meat simmer over low heat. You want to make sure you have a pot with a tight-fitting lid for this. If you aren't sure, you can cover the pot with foil in addition to covering it with the lid. I checked the roast every half hour or so, just to make sure it was still simmering. After 3 1/2 hours, I added in the carrots and turnips, re-covered the pot and let everything cook an addtional 30 minutes (or until the vegetables and meat are as tender as you want them). 

In the last hour of cooking the pot roast, I started in on the potatoes.

List of ingredients for the potatoes:

• 4 slices bacon, roughly chopped
• 2 oz pancetta, cubed
• 2 garlic cloves, thinly sliced
• 2 large russet potatoes, peeled and cut into 1/2" cubes
• Salt and pepper
• 2 tbsp coarsely chopped fresh thyme leaves

First, I cooked the bacon and pancetta in a pan over medium heat for about 10-12 minutes, until crispy. I'm not sure why you need both bacon and pancetta, but I'm not one to argue with more meat. I scooped the meat out with a slotted spoon and placed it on a paper towel-lined plate to drain.

I added the potato cubes and garlic slices to the bacon/pancetta fat, seasoned them with salt and pepper, and cooked, stirring frequently for about 25 minutes, until the potatoes were tender. I then added the thyme and meat to the pan and cooked an additional 5 minutes.

While pot roast may not be the most exciting thing in the world, it is hearty and tasty and comforting. And it made enough food to arm us with leftovers, meaning a couple of easy weekday nights of reheating and watching tv. If I keep making meals like this, once I put up the Christmas tree, I might actually start to believe it's the holiday season...