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4 garlic cloves, minced

1 cup red wine

2 cups Yia Yia’s Sunday Sauce

2 bay leaves

Preheat the oven to 300°F.

Season the meat liberally with salt and pepper, as much as a day in advance. (Cover and refrigerate it if doing so and take the meat out of the fridge 30 minutes before cooking.) Heat the oil in a large Dutch oven over high heat. When the oil is on the verge of smoking, sear the meat, about 2 minutes on each side. Move the meat to the side (or remove it from the pot altogether if necessary), and add the carrot, onion, and celery root. Brown the vegetables, about 3 minutes, then add the garlic and cook for a minute or two longer.

Add the wine to deglaze the pot, scraping up the browned bits on the bottom. Add the tomato sauce, 1 cup water, and the bay leaves (and the pot roast if you removed it). Bring the liquid to a simmer and taste for seasoning. Add more salt if necessary. Cover the pot and place it in the oven for 3 hours, basting the meat occasionally during this time.

Discard the bay leaves before serving. The meat can be removed to a cutting board and sliced if you’re serving individual plates, or the meat can be pulled apart with a couple of forks right in the pot at the table and served with plenty of the sauce and vegetables.

MOM’S LASAGNA

Every Wednesday at my parents’ house was lasagna night. This was the night all my friends begged to eat over; the dish cemented my mom, Angel, as best cook on the street. (That’s Angel on the facing page, working the reservation book at Lolita.) You could smell the lasagna baking houses away, and Wednesday was the only night of the week that I was more than happy to come in from outside and be early for dinner. I’ve eaten lasagna in every corner of the earth and I have yet to find one as good as Mom’s.

Serves 8

½ cup olive oil

1 onion, diced

4 garlic cloves, minced

Kosher salt

1 pound pork neck bones

1 pound ground veal

1 pound ground beef

1 pound spicy Italian sausage, loose or removed from the casing

½ cup dry white wine

4 cups chopped peeled tomatoes, or 1 28-ounce can San Marzano tomatoes, with their juice

3 bay leaves

1 pound dried lasagna noodles

2 pounds whole-milk ricotta cheese

¼ cup chopped fresh flat-leaf parsley leaves

¼ cup chopped fresh basil leaves

¼ cup chopped fresh oregano leaves

2 large eggs

1 pound fresh mozzarella cheese, grated

½ cup grated Parmesan cheese

In a large Dutch oven or heavy pot, heat the olive oil over medium heat. Add the onion, garlic, and a three-finger pinch of salt and sweat them until they’re translucent, 2 minutes. Add the neck bones and brown them, about 5 minutes. Add the ground veal and beef and sausage, season with another healthy pinch of salt, and continue cooking until the meat is browned, about 10 minutes. Add the white wine, tomatoes and their juice, and the bay leaves, scraping the bottom of the pot with a wooden spoon, making sure to get all of the browned bits into the sauce. Season the sauce with salt and simmer for 2 hours over medium heat. Remove the bay leaves and neck bones and let cool. Skim any fat that rises to the surface.

Bring a large pot of water to a boil. Add enough salt so that it tastes seasoned and allow the water to return to a boil. Add the noodles and cook until al dente. Drain well and set aside.

Meanwhile, in a medium bowl mix together the ricotta, parsley, basil, oregano, and eggs with a pinch of salt.

Preheat the oven to 350°F.

In a lasagna pan—9 by 13 inches is optimal—ladle about 1 cup sauce on the bottom. Arrange a layer of noodles on this followed by a layer of sauce and then some of the ricotta mixture, smoothing it with a spatula to the edges. Repeat the process until the pan is full. Finish with a final layer of noodles, sauce, the mozzarella, and Parmesan.

Cover the lasagna with aluminum foil and bake for 1 hour. Uncover and bake for 30 minutes. Let cool for 30 minutes before cutting and serving.

“CLEVELAND-STYLE