At least it’s my version of a Ragu sauce! Whatever it is, it’s chock full of goodness and was demolished quickly at my house. It’s not a thick sauce but you could add more tomato paste to thicken it up. Tender, fall apart steaks with creamy sauce.

Please see Crock Pot variation at the bottom of this post.

For this recipe:
1-1 1/2 lbs boneless chuck steaks
1/4 cup flour
Salt & pepper
3 tbs olive oil

1 medium onion, diced
4 cloves of garlic, finely diced
3 Roma tomatoes, diced
1/8 cup fresh parsley
2 tsp sugar
1/2 cup tomato paste
1 16 oz can beef stock
1/2 cup heavy cream (you can use half & half or milk, it just will be a bit soupier)
1 tsp fresh thyme
1/3 cup Romano cheese
1/4 cup Parmesan cheese

2 cups torn spinach leaves
1/2 cup frozen peas

Salt and pepper each side of each steak, then dredge thoroughly in flour. Heat olive oil in a deep pan or pot over medium-high heat – when hot, begin browning your steaks on each side.

Remove steaks after browning and set aside. Place onions and garlic into the hot oil. Cook about 5 minutes, until they begin to brown, then add tomatoes. Allow tomatoes to cook 5 minutes, then stir in tomato paste (I used regular in a can, not ultra concentrated in a tube).

Pour in stock then mix in sugar, 1/2 tsp salt, 1/4 tsp pepper and parsley. Place steaks back in pot. Bring entire pot to a boil, then lower heat. Simmer over medium low heat, covered, 1 hour 30 minutes. The steaks should be fork tender and easily torn. If not, check every 20 minutes thereafter.
Add in cream or milk cheese and cook 15 minutes. Raise heat to medium, then mix in in spinach and peas. Sauce will begin to thicken nicely and be ready about 10 minutes after adding peas. Serve over pasta, polenta, rice, potatoes – you pick!

Crock Pot Variation:
Follow all directions. It is important to always brown your meat and base vegetables before adding them to the crock pot – this gives you more flavor then simply dumping all raw ingredients. After browning meat & onions, then par cooking tomatoes, place the rest of your ingredients in your crock pot for 4 hours on high or 8 hours on low. Add in peas and spinach during last hour or two of cook time, or boil them quickly on the stove (just a few minutes) and add in right before serving.