Here comes one of the most famous recipes in Italy 🙂 when some feasts come, this is one of those recipes people might consider.

It’s a recipe where the quality of the ingredients will help a lot on the final result: the most famous version indeed is the “Brasato al Barolo”, as the name says made with Barolo wine.

But if you don’t have Barolo, you can be sure you will have a great result with some other good wines too 🙂 because a low quality wine makes a poor sauce, a good wine (not necessarily very expensive, but at least reasonable) makes a good sauce. It’s logic 🙂

Another important thing is to marinate well the beef, at least a whole night. And then also how you cook it is very important: it has to simmer slowly, until the meat will be tender. Usually for a piece of beef of about 1-1,2 kg it takes around 3 hours long.

Let’s see how to make it!

 

INGREDIENTS (4 people):

• 1-1,2 kg beef (the best choice is the top blade roast, but also the chuck or the rump can be ok)
• 400-500 ml of a good quality red wine
• 2 onions
• 2 carrots
• 2 ribs of celery
• juniper berries
• 2 bay leaves
• fresh rosemary
• fresh sage
• 2 cloves
• butter
• flour
• freshly ground black pepper
• salt

 

1. First you have to prepare the marinade: take a bowl enough large to contain the meat, peel and chop the onions, carrots and celery (you don’t need to chop them small), add the bay leaves, the rosemary, the sage, the juniper berries and the cloves, and cover with the wine. Cover the bowl with a plastic wrap and place in the fridge for about 10-12 hours.
2. The day after take out the meat from the wine, drain it and tie the meat with a butcher’s twine, so it will keep a nice shape while cooking and you will be able to cut nice slices. Pass it in a little bit of flour. Then remove the bay leaves, the juniper berries and the cloves from the marinade.
3. Take a pan, heat a drizzle of extra virgin olive oil and some butter and brown well the meat on all the sides.
4. Then keep the meat aside and add a drop of the wine from the marinade to deglaze the juices remained attached on the bottom of the pan, and then pour them in a cocotte.
5. Add some more butter in the cocotte, add the meat, the vegetables and the wine from the marinade, and some new rosemary and sage.
6. Once you reach the boil set the heat on very low, the minimum, cover it, and let it simmer for at least 2 hours and half long, maybe 3 hours (you have to control). The wine doesn’t need to cover completely the meat, about half is also enough. Turn the meat every 45-50 minutes.
7. When you see the meat is tender and ready, season with salt and pepper.
8. Take out the meat and let it cool down for at least 15-20 minutes.
9. Meanwhile take a food mill or an immersion blender and use it with all the vegetables, making a smooth sauce. Set the heat higher, add a knob of butter and let the sauce reduce if it’s too liquid.
10. Then slice the beef and put the slice in the sauce. Cook for some more minutes.
11. It’s ready 🙂 Serve it next to a good polenta, or mashed potatoes. And of course next to a good red wine 😉 (the tradition, and the logic, wants that you drink the same wine used for the marinade)

 

 

As always with this kind of recipes, if some meat remains you can always make some amazing pasta like in the photo below 🙂 simply break the meat into pieces (with a fork), cook it with its sauce and add some freshly grated Parmigiano Reggiano 😉 delicious!

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Products used:

Beef: Angus, flat iron, from Terra Pannonia

Wine: “Infusio” from the Hungarian winery Pannonhalmi Apátsági Pincészet

For the pasta: handmade long Fusilli, from Pastificio Gentile