Two-Ingredient Super Healthful Tomato Beef Bone Broth

I’m very lucky to have access to meat (and other products) from grass-fed Hawaii cattle. Once in a while soup bones become available at the local grocery store. If you see these, buy them. Six big pieces, if you can get them.

Some say bone broth is good for joints, digestion and general health. What I can say for sure is that the bone, meat and marrow will make your soup taste rich and delicious. Now for the second ingredient: Arrabbiata Sauce.

Napa Valley Bistro - Arrabbiata Pasta Sauces

You should always have a few jars of this in your pantry. (I happen to like Mezzetta, but the SF Chronicle’s taste testers preferred Rao’s. Safeway Select is a good inexpensive choice if you have that available.)

Put the bones and sauce into a slow cooker with enough water to reach the top. Add some salt, because you just watered down the sauce. Cook for 12-24 hours.

You’ll get a lot of meat from the bones, and some of the marrow will soften and dissolve in the soup.

The bones are going to fall apart so make sure to fish out the bone pieces before you serve this. You don’t want to get hit with some ungrateful dinner guest’s dental repair bill.

[OPTIONAL THIRD INGREDIENT: A BAG OF FROZEN VEGETABLES]

Asparagus Stir Fry

After you take out the bones, you can dump in a bag of mixed mushrooms or Westpac asparagus stir fry and cook until the vegetables are done.

Obligatory Spam mention: cut up leftover Spam into cubes and boil in the soup for extra flavor.

This is wonderful for a cold day. (The temperature here has plummeted to 71 F /22 C.  Brrr!)