Ropa Vieja: Chef Patty’s “Ultimate Cuban Comfort Food“
- January 2025
- By Patty Morrell-Ruiz
- Recipe from Cuba
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Ropa vieja recipes like this one are why Familia Kitchen exists. We are happiest when we are spotlighting real-deal family-loved dishes that have been made and loved for generations in Latino cocinas. We especially love when these recetas are made in one olla, can feed a crowd, and are more delicioso on the second day.
Like this ropa vieja!
Gracias to Patty Morrell-Ruiz, cooking doyenne of The Mad Table and author of The Essential Cuban Cookbook, for sharing her family-famous ropa vieja with our community of homecooks. She tells us that this one-pot dish with shredded beef in a tomatoey sauce is the down-home Cuban meal she turns to when she wants to feed the fam a memorably coz meal on a weeknight. It’s also fancy enough to serve at a Saturday night dinner party.
This dish has range, making it a forever favorite of hers — and ours, here at Familia Kitchen. We are devoted to ropa vieja (for all the same one-pot-wonder reasons we love arroz con pollo), and are are honored to showcase this new-to-us recipe from Patty. Actually, she’s Chef Patty, teaching at the Miami Culinary Institute and offers cooking classes at her home in Miami.
At the heart of her cooking and her cookbook are soulful recipes like this one, steeped in her childhood memories. ”It’s the dish that my family would prepare when they wanted to splurge and feed a crowd — an upgraded version of picadillo,” Patty says.
Patty grew up in both Miami and Puerto Rico. She tells us she’s always loved to cook and entertain, skills she inherited from both her Cuban parents, who loved nothing more than to throw a party, make a lot of delicioso food, and invite everyone over. Her family food heritage and love language are definitely cooking Cuban, she explains.
The History of Ropa Vieja in Cuban Cuisine
“Ropa vieja is the ultimate comfort food!,” says Patty. Its name in Spanish means “old clothes” — most likely a reference to how the piece-y stew looks when its beef strands are simmering in a large pot, a bit like wrung-out clothes in a hand-washing tub, although there is lots of folklore explaining its curious name.).
The dish’s history is fascinating, says Patty. “Known as the national dish of Cuba, ropa vieja has roots dating back to the Middle Ages in Spain, particularly among the Sephardic Jews. It’s believed to have been brought to Cuba by immigrants from the Canary Islands, with the first recorded citation of the dish in Cuba in 1857. So iconic is ropa vieja to comida Cubana that it’s practically a given on the menu of any Cuban restaurant.”
How Did Chef Patty Learn to Make Ropa Vieja?
Does Chef Patty remember learning to make ropa vieja for the first time?
Surprisingly, no, she says. “No one ever sat me down to teach me how to make it step by step,” Patty smiles. ”I grew up watching my grandmother and mom take a large piece of flank steak, cook it in the pressure cooker, then shred and divide the beef in half. One half would be braised in a tomato sauce and wine mixture to make ropa vieja, while the other half would go into a beef soup made with the flavorful broth from the pressure cooker, along with malanga, potatoes, carrots, and fideos (vermicelli noodles).”
Now that Patty’s the one teaching the recipe to her kids, how often does she cook ropa vieja for her family? (Because, we get it. It’s not hard to make, but the dish does take a good 2 hours to braise on the stove, after all. Ropa vieja demands un poquito de planning.)
Big dish, big payoff, says Patty. “I usually make ropa vieja when I want to prepare an elevated Cuban dish. Whether it’s for Sunday family dinners, a Cuban-themed cooking class — or, when I’m feeling prepared: Making enough to have leftovers for ropa vieja sliders on game day, it’s always a hit.”
That’s right! Wach this space. We’ll be posting Patty’s recipe for ropa vieja sliders next week, just in time for your Super B Big Game watch-party snack prep!
One last question for Chef Patty: What does she think makes her ropa vieja so double-extra delicioso Spices, it turns out. “I think most Cubans have adopted the habit of using a packet of Sazón Goya (I know my Mom did). But since I’m familiar with the spices in the packet, I prefer to make my own mix. I also add a dash of hot sauce for an extra kick,” says Patty.
Patty also shakes things up with her choice of beef, she adds. “Flank steak is the traditional cut for this recipe, but sometimes, when I want a richer, fattier flavor, I’ll use chuck. It’s also delicious and gives the dish a little extra depth compared to lean flank steak. That said, I’ll admit flank steak gives the strands a longer texture, which is more authentic in appearance!”
Auténtico and delicioso, our favorite kind of Latino homecooking. Gracias, Chef Patty! ❤️🇨🇺
For more of our favorite Patty’s Cuban dishes, check out her Cuban pollo a la chorrera (the winner of our arroz con pollo food fight), her arroz congri, and her chorizo and black bean dip, the perfecto party appetizer or Sunday game-time snack.
Ready to Make Patty’s Family-Famous Cuban Ropa Vieja?
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