Thanks for all the great ideas. I got inspired by a variety of posts.. now I'm not sure what you'd call this but here's what I did (am doing):
Cooked 4 slices of chopped bacon in my Dutch oven ( enameled CI) to render out the fat. Removed it with a slotted spoon.
Added a pound of stew beef cubed and cooked it in the bacon fat till browned. Removed that with a slotted spoon.
Added 2 tbsp EVOO and then cooked for 5 minutes the following -
1 onion quartered and sliced
2 rib celery sliced @ 1/2" thick
3 large carrots sliced @ 1/2" thick
3 cloved chopped garlic
salt and pepper
Then I added some beef stock to deglaze the pot, added back in the beef and bacon and added enough stock to be level with the veg and meat and stirred all. Then added
2 tbsp tomato paste
1 tsp Kitchen Bouquet
Stirred and brought to a boil. Added 3 bay leaves, covered and put in a 325 degree oven. [It is cooking now]
[Edited] Then after an hour add 8 oz sliced mushroom and 1/2 lb of uncooked rigatoni and enough more stock to just cover. Put the lid bck on and let cook for another 30 minutes.
Remove from over, remove the bay leaves, mix 3 tbsp softend butter with 3-4 tbsp flour, add the pot and still to thicken the gravy.