The Mystery in the Freezer: Short Rib

Over the last year, I’ve gotten much better at labeling things I put in the freezer. What it is, when I made it, and, ideally, a date. It’s a simple system that saves a lot of guessing later. That was not the case for short rib last night.

Last night, however, the system failed me.

Recently, we bought a new refrigerator, which meant going through the old freezer and making some decisions about what had been hiding in there. Quite a few things didn’t make the move. The frozen “things” in my plastic quart containers, however, survived the purge and made their way into the new refrigerator.

Last night, I decided it was time to sort through the four remaining containers. I was specifically looking for some San Marzano tomato passata I had made several months earlier.

I didn’t find the passata.

I did, however, find another reddish-colored container.

Upon opening it, I noticed what appeared to be basil sitting on top. At least, I think it was basil. I never actually confirmed that theory. But I figured whatever was inside could become the foundation for the red sauce I wanted to make with the garden-grown San Marzano tomatoes we had on hand.

So, into a pot of water it went.

About five minutes later, I discovered the container had a hole in it. Fortunately, whatever was inside was warm enough to dump into another pan.

And I still had absolutely no idea what I was warming up.

About ten minutes later, as the contents continued to heat, the mystery was finally solved.

Boneless short ribs.

Apparently, I had made boneless short ribs a few months earlier and braised them in an onion sauce. They had been frozen, forgotten and eventually mistaken for some sort of tomato-based creation.

The good news? They still tasted fantastic.

Of course, when you use some excellent wine in a braise, the odds of the leftovers being fantastic months later are pretty good.

From Mystery Meat to Tomato Sauce

Now that I knew what I was working with, I changed course.

I cleaned up the first pan, which contained the water and a few remnants from the frozen short ribs, then turned my attention to the tomatoes.

I sliced all of the San Marzano tomatoes from the garden in half and dropped them into the pan with a generous pinch of salt. I let them cook down until the tomatoes had released a good amount of juice and pulp, leaving behind mostly empty skins.

Once the tomatoes had cooled enough to handle, I ran everything through a chinois. The goal was simple: get as much of the tomato pulp and juice as possible while leaving the seeds and skins behind.

The resulting tomato mixture went back into the pot to reduce. I added a few stems of fresh basil while it cooked, letting the tomato sauce pick up some of that fresh basil flavor.

Once the sauce had reduced enough, it was time to bring the two parts together.

The tomato sauce went into the pan with the short ribs, and suddenly the mystery container from the freezer had become the centerpiece of dinner.

Gigli Pasta Was the Right Choice for Short Rib

Anna had recently picked up some Gigli pasta from Trader Joe’s, so I boiled about three cups until it was al dente.

Gigli turned out to be an excellent choice.

The ruffled, trumpet-like shape grabbed onto the tomato sauce and held little pieces of the short rib in all the right places. Once the pasta was added to the sauce, everything was tossed together until every piece was coated.

What started as a search for homemade San Marzano passata had turned into a pasta dish built around something I didn’t even realize I had in the freezer.

And honestly, I’m not complaining.

The Rest of the Plate

We rounded out dinner with some rosemary focaccia and a simple side salad made with cucumber, Early Girl tomatoes and avocado, finished with some Pecorino Romano cheese.

It wasn’t necessarily the dinner I had planned when I started digging through the freezer.

It was better.

There’s something satisfying about cooking with what you have, especially when “what you have” turns out to be a container of boneless short ribs you forgot you made.

Maybe there’s a lesson here about labeling everything in the freezer.

Or maybe the lesson is that sometimes you should just embrace the mystery.

Either way, dinner turned out pretty damn good.