Carne a Pizzaiola

I got this recipe from our neighbor, Pete's very Italian daughter-in-law, Mary. I was struggling pronouncing it, and she showed me how. You put your fingers together with your thumb and open and close them as you say it. It really helps you get the accent. Anyway, so it's authentic Italian . . . and delicious.

Top round steak, cut into 2-3" pieces and sprinkled with steak seasoning. Let "marinate" while you prepare the other ingredients. (I also tenderize the meat by beating with a knife before I cut it up)

3 or 4 cloves garlic, chopped ( I use the lazy stuff in a jar)

1/3 cup olive oil

1/2 tsp. oregano

2 8 oz. cans tomato sauce

dash red hot pepper flakes

Sandwich rolls

Brown seasoned meat in olive oil. While browning, mix together other ingredients. Put meat in crock pot. Put some of the tomato mixture in the skillet to deglaze the pan. Pour tomato mixture over the meat in crock pot and drizzle with remaining olive oil. Cook on low for three hours or until meat is fork tender. Fill sandwich rolls with meat mixture and top with grated mozzarella cheese on a cookie sheet. Broil until cheese melts. Mary serves it with green salad.

Okay, now here's the truth:

I do the meat as written, but sometimes I just open a jar or can of spaghetti sauce to replace the tomato mixture. So easy and still good. I still drizzle it with olive oil after it's all the crock pot.

An aside: Every time I make this, I think of an episode I saw years ago of "Everybody Loves Raymond." Marie agrees to teach Debra to cook, giving her the recipe and ingredients for this dish to try at home. Debra keeps trying it, but it just doesn't taste as good as Marie's. She then discovers that Marie has covered the label of one of the spices with the word "oregano", it's really some other spice, making the dish taste wrong (sabotage!)- thus preserving her title as "best cook!"