Complex Meals Made Easy: 7 Steps To An Old-World Italian Stew Your Nonna Would Be Proud Of

Click here to make things easier on yourself. Keep reading to get the whole scoop. 

Nonna’s Italian Beef Stew, By the “Recipe”

When it comes to Italian cooking, it’s all about simple, classic ingredients — and, of course, time spent feasting on the fabulous food with loved ones! (Probably the best part.)

But despite the widespread popularity of Italian fare, there is a downside to its minimalism, at least for the uninitiated: true recipes are somewhat hard to come by, and that includes the recipe for a classic Italian beef stew.

Some of the classic ingredients are obvious: beef, roasted tomatoes, onions. (Definitely a loaf of buttery Italian bread for dipping throughout the day. You’ve got to have a few taste tests!) The rest? Just ask every Italian, ever.

It’s easy to walk into your local family Italian restaurant and order a home-cooked meal, but replicating the recipes at home can be somewhat difficult when it should be easy. The reason is because each family’s recipe is just slightly different, and asking for a consensus is like asking whether or not it’s okay to top spaghetti with ketchup. (It’s really, really, really not.)

Those same recipes are safe-guarded by the family and handed down through the generations. So, if you’re lucky enough to partake in a homemade Italian beef stew and get the full recipe from the chef, we say count yourself lucky!

Skip the search for an easy Italian stew recipe. Spoiler: it’ll take longer for you to find something suitable than it will to try this instead…

The Old-World, Easy Italian Stew Any Nonna Would Be Proud Of

With just a few extra minutes before you leave for your day, you can craft an old-world Italian beef stew that any Italian grandmother would happily eat. Here’s how to do it in 7 easy steps:

1. Pull out your Slow Cooker.
2. Unpack and assemble the ingredients from your Rustic Italian Beef Stew Slow Cooker Meal: the two packages of beef and a bag of vegetables (with sauce pouches inside).
3. Open the beef packages and place your beef in the bottom of the slow cooker.
4. Next, open each of the three sauce packets and add on top of your beef.
5. After that, simply top the beef and sauce with the vegetables and ¼ cup of water before covering your slow cooker.
6. Program your slow cooker to cook on LOW for 8 hours or HIGH for 6 hours — up to you!
7. Hours later, when you’re smelling the fantastic aroma of beef braising in Burgundy wine and fire-roasted tomatoes, we recommend pouring your finished Italian beef stew over some creamy polenta or simply sopping it up with the rest of that aforementioned buttery bread. (Because Italians don’t say no to carbs.)

Buon appetito!