I made these short ribs to go with a bottle of Barolo sent to us by my James and Elizabeth at Christmas. I asked what went with it and they said, "something heavy, like braised short ribs." I thought those sounded good, so I made some a couple of Saturdays ago.

They were loosely based on this recipe. I used fewer ribs, cut the tomato paste, and I used veal stock instead of water. I also diced the vegetables, and pureed the sauce at the end. The wine I used is of one of my current favorite pizza wines, the 2006 Trader Joe's Reserve Cabernet Sauvignon. This is a good $10 wine to go with a pepperoni pizza and I had a half-bottle left over from pizza night.

It's not exactly health food, but the 420 or so calories in one portion are still less than a medium frappe at McDonald's. Or one of those heinous KFC double down sandwiches. And there is certainly less salt. The biggest suggestion I can make as far as healthy eating is concerned is to go light on the sauce. I portioned out probably twice as much sauce as I should have. With half the sauce, the caloric load would have been closer to 350. Before the potatoes and butter.

I was home all day Saturday puttering around the house, so it was a perfect day for an all-afternoon braise. The house smelled fabulous for hours before we ate. The ribs were spectacular and went perfectly with the wine. I served them with some mashed russet potatoes and broccoli. I can highly recommend making these, though I wouldn't recommend eating them too often.