Balsamic St. Louis Ribs

Balsamic, Basil

St. Louis Ribs

"Smoked St. Louis style pork spare ribs basted with a sweet & tangy balsamic basil sauce, with Italian parsley, green onion, garlic, olive oil Chimichurri shrimp"

with Chimichurri Shrimp

Ingredients

1 slab St. Louis style ribs, 4 pounds

Salt & pepper

Marsala wine

Spray bottle, food grade

Butcher paper

Balsamic Basil Sauce

1/2 cup plus 2 tablespoons Tomato sauce

3 tablespoons Red balsamic

2 tablespoons soy sauce

2 tablespoons good quality olive oil

1/2 teaspoon Smoked paprika

1 cup brown sugar

1 tablespoon white sugar

1/4 teaspoon garlic powder

1/2 teaspoon onion powder

1/8 teaspoon ground fennel seeds

Fresh basil leaves

Chimichurri Shrimp

4 large garlic cloves, minced

4 Green onions thinly sliced

1/4 cup coarsely chopped Italian parsley

¼ cup good quality olive oil

Salt & pepper

Uncooked, jumbo shrimp peeled & deveined

Olive oil

Salt & pepper

Directions

Set your smoker at 250F.

Mix 1 part water with 1/2 part Marsala wine in the spray bottle.

Remove membrane from back of ribs, pat dry with paper towels and season both sides with salt & pepper. Make the sauce while ribs are cooking.

Place in the smoker and cook for 3 hours. Spritz the ribs every 30 minutes during cooking. After 3 hours, place slab on a large baking sheet and bring inside to wrap in butcher paper.

Tear off a piece of butcher paper long enough to wrap the ribs lengthwise and place top side up in the middle. Brush liberally with some of the sauce, fold the ends up tightly and then fold the sides up. Tear off another sheet of butcher paper and repeat 2 more times so ribs are wrapped tightly. Place back on the smoker grate and cook 1 more hour. After 1 hour, open the layers of butcher paper and brush the ribs with more of the sauce. Let cook another 15-20 minutes, remove and let cool.

Balsamic Basil Sauce

Place all the ingredients except the basil, in a mixing bowl and whisk. Tear a small handful of fresh basil leaves and whisk into the sauce. Set aside until ready to use.

Chimichurri

Add all ingredients to a small bowl, season with salt & pepper and stir.

Pat dry the shrimp, season with salt & pepper and toss with some olive oil. After the ribs are removed from smoker, arrange the shrimp onto the grate and cook at 250F-300F until shrimp are opaque in color, turning shrimp over 1 time halfway through cooking. Remove shrimp and toss with some of the Chimichurri.

Serve the ribs on butcher paper with the shrimp. Drizzle remaining chimichurri over ribs.