Selena Robins, Author

Meat-a-tarians love ribs. They’re a sticky mess to eat at times, but the tender meat falling off the bones and the succulent sweet and tangy barbecue sauce that drips down one’s fingers, making it finger lickin’ good is a North American adventure.

I say North American, because generally to some Italians, the thought of eating meat slathered in any kind of sweetness is not something that they would consider—-that is, until they taste it and fall in love with anything related to BBQ sauce.

I know there are a ton of great barbecue rib recipes and you probably have your own great recipe, which is why I thought I’d provide you with an alternative to this popular dish.

Here’s a recipe for luscious baby back ribs braised with tomato and fresh basil.

If you have any leftover meat left over, you can throw it in the Sexy Sassy Sauce and toss it in with some pasta.

Ingredients:

3 pounds of pork baby back ribs

3 TBSP extra virgin olive oil

4 garlic cloves (minced)

5 shallots (minced)

1 cup fresh basil (finely chopped)

4 sage leaves (finely chopped)

1/3 cup dry red wine (as I said in another recipe, if it’s good enough to drink, it’s good enough to use in cooking.)

2 cups canned whole peeled tomatoes with their juice (chopped into small pieces)

Sea Salt

Freshly Ground Black Pepper

Directions:

Heat oil over medium-high heat in a pan (a large enough pan that will accommodate the ribs snugly, if they overlap that’s okay).

Once oil is heated, add the ribs and brown them on all sides.

Remove pan from the heat and season ribs with salt and pepper.

Add, garlic, shallots and sage and stir to coat all the ribs.

Put the pan on medium-high heat and add the wine.

Cook for one minute, allowing the alcohol to evaporate.

Add the canned tomatoes.

Season tomatoes with salt, stirring the tomatoes into the ribs.

Once tomatoes start to bubble, lower the heat to low.

Cover the pan with the lid slightly askew.

Cook the ribs for two and half hours, or until the ribs are very, very tender.

Turn ribs every twenty minutes.

If all the liquid in the pan evaporates before the ribs are ready, add some water.

Once the ribs are tender and done, turn the heat off and sprinkle with fresh basil and let sit for 10 minutes with the lid on before serving.

If the sauce has too much liquid when the ribs are done, remove the cover, raise the heat to medium high until the sauce is reduced.

You can find this recipe in our cook book, COOK LIKE A WRITER, available for free on Smashwords and Kobo.