Prep your veggies. Peel the carrots, onion, and garlic, and clean the celery stalks. Roughly cut the vegetables, the carrots, celery and onion about an inch thick. Liberally salt and pepper the short ribs.

In a dutch oven on medium, heat the 2 tablespoons of oil for a few minutes. Sear the short ribs on all sides, until the meat has a nice brown crust on it. Once all of the meat is browned, transfer to a plate. I like to turn off the heat for a few minutes to give the oil a chance to cool down slightly, so it doesn’t burn the vegetables. Once you’re ready, turn the heat back on to medium, and pre-heat the oven to 300 degrees F. You won’t need to add any more oil, the fat from the short ribs should be enough to sauté the vegetables. Cook your veggies until they’re soft, about 8-10 minutes (the carrots won’t cook through but they will cook once they’re in the oven). Sprinkle them with salt and pepper, and add your wine in to deglaze the pot, cooking an additional few minutes.

Time to add the tomato paste - add the whole can in, breaking it up helping it to melt into the sauce. Cook all of this together, for another five minutes. Then add in the beef stock, water, bay leaves, fresh rosemary and thyme (I like to tie the thyme and rosemary together with kitchen twine, but if you don’t have it, I would take the leaves off of the stem and add it).

Add the short ribs (and all of the juices that gathered on the plate) back into the pot, making sure they are fully submerged in the liquid. Bring it to a boil, and with the lid on, carefully transfer into the oven (pot will be heavy and the oven will be hot!).

Cook for 3 hours at 300. Every hour, take it out and skim off any fat that has come to the top, and stir to make sure everything is combined and nothing is sticking. On the fourth hour, raise the heat to 400 degrees and cook for another hour and a half. Remove from the oven - if you used twine for the herbs, remove the herb bundle. Serve with mashed potatoes or polenta, buon appetito!