Spaghetti Daube in Creole Gravy

By kimvess

Spaghetti Daube is a well loved Deep South dish and not surprising because it is such a budget stretcher. A slow braised beef, it is cooked in, then shredded & returned to a lovely Creole sauce. Serve over spaghetti noodles.

Ingredients

• 3 to 5 pound beef chuck or rump roast
• 2-3 tablespoons of vegetable or canola oil
• 2 large onions, chopped
• 2 stalks of celery, chopped
• 1 large green bell pepper, chopped
• 4 cloves of garlic, minced
• 2 tablespoons of tomato paste
• 2 (28 ounce) cans of whole tomatoes
• 1 (8 ounce) can of tomato sauce
• 1 tablespoon sugar
• 1/2 cup of beef broth (or red wine)
• Splash of Worcestershire sauce
• 1 teaspoon of salt
• 1/4 teaspoon of freshly cracked black pepper
• 1/2 teaspoon of Cajun seasoning (like Slap Ya Mama), or to taste, optional
• 1 teaspoon of Italian seasoning
• 1/2 tablespoon of dried parsley
• 1 large bay leaf
• Grated nutmeg
• Cooked spaghetti noodles
• Shredded Parmesan cheese, optional

Details

Servings 6
Preparation time 15mins
Cooking time 195mins
Adapted from deepsouthdish.com

Preparation

Step 1

Set roast aside to come to room temperature.

Pour enough canola oil into the bottom of a heavy, stainless stockpot and heat to medium high. Add onion, celery and bell pepper and cook until softened, but not brown. Add the garlic and cook another minute. Stir in the tomato paste and cook and stir for about 5 minutes. Using a pair of kitchen shears, coarsely cut up both cans of the whole tomatoes right in the can; add to pot. Add the tomato sauce and sugar. Bring to a boil, reduce heat, cover and simmer for 20 minutes.

Add the salt, pepper, Cajun seasoning, Italian seasoning, parsley, and bay leaf. Pass a whole nutmeg over a microplane 3 or 4 times and stir in the beef broth and Worcestershire; bring up to a boil. Cut the roast in half, add it to the pot, cover, reduce heat to a low simmer, and cook for 2 to 3 hours or until beef is tender. Don't allow the meat to boil! Keep it at a very low simmer.

Remove the beef from the pot, slice into 1/2 inch slices (if you are making Daube Glace, reserve some of these whole slices) and then shred pieces with a fork, add the shredded beef back to the tomato gravy. Let it continue to low simmer, covered, another 15 minutes, or just hold the pot on very low until you are ready to serve. You can also leave it as whole slices if you prefer, returning the slices to the gravy to simmer a bit, and then serving the slices on top of the spaghetti noodles, with a bit of sauce spooned over the top.

Boil the spaghetti noodles according to package directions; drain well. Return noodles to pot and add a couple of scoops of the tomato gravy, stirring to coat all of the noodles. Turn the noodles out onto a large platter and pour sauce over the top, or plate noodles individually and add a couple of hearty scoops of the meat and sauce.

Serve with Parmesan cheese at the table for sprinkling on top. Add a mixed garden salad on the side and a nice chunk of hot, buttered French bread.

Tip: If you'd ever had the occasion to end up with watery spaghetti on your plate, the culprit is likely the wet pasta. Don't rinse the pasta, make sure you give it time to drain really well, and wait until pasta is dry and stops steaming. That steam can create condensation and thus water when plated. Also, you can transfer the pasta back to the hot, but empty, cooking pot and place it back over the turned off burner. The residual heat from the burner and the pot will help to dry the water out of the pasta.

For the Crockpot: Place everything (except the pasta and cheese) into the crockpot and cook on low for about 6 hours or until the roast is falling apart tender. Remove, shred and serve over pasta.