4. When the cabbage is done, transfer it to a plate, using a slotted spoon or spatula. Put the remaining 1 tablespoon olive oil in the same pan, turn on the heat to high, and put in the beef rolls. Turn them as they cook to brown them all over.
5. Return the cabbage to the pan, add the wine, and a little more salt and pepper. When the wine has bubbled for about 15 seconds, turn the heat down to low and put a cover on the pan. Cook until the wine has been totally reduced, about 10 minutes. Serve promptly in a warm platter with all the juices of the pan.
Ahead-of-time note You can cook the rolls up to this point several hours in advance, and reheat them briefly before proceeding to the next step. You may also cook the dish through to the end, and when ready to serve it a few hours later, reheat it gently in its juices.
Note It’s possible that some of the cheese will run out of the beef rolls while they are cooking. It’s not a cause for concern; mix the cheese into the cabbage, thus enriching the sauce for the beef.
Pot Roast of Beef Braised in Red Wine
For 6 servings
Vegetable oil
4 pounds boneless beef roast, preferably chuck
1 tablespoon butter
3 tablespoons onion chopped very fine
3 tablespoons carrot chopped very fine
2 tablespoons celery chopped very fine 1½ cups dry red wine (see note below)
1 cup or more Basic Homemade Meat Broth, prepared as directed, OR ½ cup canned beef broth plus ½ cup or more water
1½ tablespoons chopped canned imported Italian plum tomatoes
A pinch of dried thyme
¼ teaspoon fresh marjoram or ⅛ teaspoon dried
Salt
Black pepper, ground fresh from the mill
Wine note This pot roast is a version of Piedmont’s stracotto al Barolo and an ideal rendition of it would call for Barolo in the pot as well as Barolo in your glass. If you must make a substitution, try to use another Piedmontese red, such as Barbaresco or a fine Barbera. Other suitable choices: Rhone wine, California Syrah or Zinfandel, or Shiraz from Australia or South Africa.
1. Preheat oven to 350°.
2. Put in just enough vegetable oil in a skillet, tilting the pan in several directions, to coat the bottom well. Turn the heat on to high and when the oil is hot enough that a slight haze forms over it, slip in the meat. Brown it well all over, then transfer it to a platter and set aside. Set the skillet aside for later use, without cleaning it.
3. Choose a pot with a tight-fitting lid just large enough to accommodate the meat later. Put in 2 tablespoons of vegetable oil, the butter, and the onion, turn on the heat to medium, and cook the onion until it becomes colored a pale gold. Add the carrot and celery. Stir thoroughly to coat well, cook for 4 to 5 minutes, then put in the browned meat.
4. Pour the wine into the skillet in which the meat was browned, turn on the heat to medium high, and allow the wine to bubble briskly for a minute or less, while scraping the pan with a wooden spoon to loosen cooking residues stuck to the bottom and sides. Add the contents of the skillet to the pot with the meat.
5. Add the homemade broth or diluted canned broth to the pot. It should come two-thirds of the way up the sides of the meat, but if it doesn’t, add more homemade broth or water. Add the tomatoes, thyme, marjoram, salt, and several grindings of pepper. Turn the heat on to high, bring the contents of the pot to a boil, then cover the pot and put it on the middle rack of the preheated oven. Cook for about 3 hours, turning the meat every 20 minutes or so, basting it with the liquid in the pot, which should be cooking at a slow, steady simmer. If it is not simmering, turn up the oven thermostat. On occasion it may happen that all the liquid in the pot has evaporated or been absorbed before the meat is done. If this should occur, add 3 to 4 tablespoons of water. Cook until the meat feels very tender when prodded with a fork.
6. Remove the meat to a cutting board. If the liquid in the pot should be too thin and it has not been reduced to less than ⅔ cup, put the pot on a burner, turn the heat on to high, and boil down the juices, while scraping up any cooking residues stuck to the pot. Taste the juices and correct for salt and pepper. Slice the meat, put the slices on a warm platter, arranging them so they overlap slightly, pour the pot juices over them, and serve at once.
Pot Roast of Beef Braised in Amarone Wine
AMARONE is Verona’s unique and great red wine. It is made from grapes that, after they are harvested, have been put aside to shrivel for 3 or 4 months before they are crushed. Their concentrated juice produces a dry wine of intense flavor, splendid as an accompaniment to meat dishes of substance, sumptuous to sip on its own at the end of a meal, and extraordinary as the braising liquid for a pot roast of beef. No other wine delivers comparable taste sensations. It should not be difficult to find in any shop that stocks good Italian wine, but should you be compelled to make a substitution, look for any unfortified, fine, dry red wine with an alcohol content of at least 14 percent.
For 4 to 6 servings
2 tablespoons chopped pancetta
2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
2 pounds beef chuck
¾ cup onion chopped very fine
½ cup celery chopped fine
2 garlic cloves, lightly mashed and peeled
Salt
Black pepper, ground fresh from the mill
1¾ cups Amarone wine (see introductory note above)
1. Choose a heavy-bottomed pot with a tight-fitting lid just large enough to accommodate the meat later. Put in the chopped pancetta and the olive oil, turn the heat on to medium high, and cook the pancetta for about 1 minute, stirring it once or twice. Put in the meat, turn it to brown it well all over, then remove it from the pot.
2. Add the chopped onion to the pot and cook it, stirring it once or twice, until it becomes colored a pale gold.
3. Return the meat to the pot, adding the celery, garlic, salt, liberal grindings of pepper, and ½ cup of the Amarone. Cover the pot, keeping the lid slightly askew, and turn the heat down to minimum. Cook for 3 hours over very slow heat. Turn the meat from time to time and add the rest of the Amarone, a little bit at a time. If, before the 3 hours are up, all the wine in the pot has evaporated, add 2 or 3 tablespoons of water, as needed, to keep the roast from sticking. The meat is fully cooked if it feels extremely tender when tested with a fork.
4. Take the meat out of the pot and let it rest on a cutting board for about 10 minutes. Slice it very thin, then put the slices back in the pot and turn them in the small amount of sauce that will have formed.
Ahead-of-time note You can complete the recipe up to this point several hours before serving. When ready to serve, warm the meat in its sauce over very low heat. If the roast has absorbed all the sauce, add 1 or 2 tablespoons of water while reheating.
Beef Roast Braised with Onions
WHAT IS REMARKABLE about this roast is that it is braised with only the juices that flow from the onions on which the meat rests. Eventually the juices vanish, the meat becomes tenderly impregnated with sweet onion flavor, and the onions themselves turn deliciously brown.
The only fat used is the pancetta with which the beef is larded. If you don’t have a larding needle, push strips of pancetta into the meat using a chopstick of the traditional hard Chinese rather than the soft, breakable Japanese kind, or any other blunt, narrow stick, or similar object. Pierce the meat following the direction of its grain.
For 4 to 6 servings
¼ pound pancetta OR salt porkin a single piece
2 pounds boneless beef roast, preferably the brisket
5 cloves
4 medium onions sliced very, very thin
Salt
Black pepper, ground fresh from the mill
1. Preheat oven to 325°.
2. Cut the pancetta or salt pork into narrow strips about ¼ inch wide. Use half the strips to lard the meat with a larding needle, or by an alternative method as suggested in the introductory remarks above.
3. Insert
the cloves at random into any 5 of the places where the pancetta was inserted.
4. Choose a heavy-bottomed pot just large enough to accommodate the roast snugly. Spread the sliced onion on the bottom of the pot, over it distribute the remaining strips of pancetta or salt pork, then put in the meat. Season liberally with salt and pepper, and cover tightly. If the lid does not provide a tight fit, place a sheet of aluminum foil between it and the pot. Put on the uppermost rack of the preheated oven.
5. Cook for about 3½ hours, until the meat feels very tender when prodded with a fork. Turn the roast after the first 30 minutes, and every 30 to 40 minutes thereafter. You will find that the color of the meat is dull and unlovely at first, but as it finishes cooking and the onions become colored a dark brown it develops a rich, dark patina.
6. When done, slice the meat and arrange the slices on a warm platter. Pour the contents of the pan and the juices left on the cutting board over the meat, and serve at once.
Beef Tenderloin with Red Wine
For 4 servings
3 garlic cloves
1 tablespoon vegetable oil
2 tablespoons butter
4 beef fillets, cut 1 inch thick
⅔ cup flour, spread on a plate
Salt
Black pepper, ground fresh from the mill
⅔ cup full-bodied dry red wine (follow suggestions in wine note to recipe Pot Roast of Beef Braised in Red Wine)
1. Lightly mash the garlic cloves with a knife handle, just hard enough to split the peel, which you will loosen and discard.
2. Choose a sauté pan that can later accommodate the 4 fillets without overlapping. Put in the oil and butter, and turn on the heat to medium high.
3. Dredge both sides of the meat in flour. As soon as the butter foam begins to subside, put in the fillets and the mashed garlic cloves. Brown the meat deeply on both sides, then transfer to a plate, using a slotted spoon or spatula. Season with salt and liberal grindings of pepper.
4. Add the wine to the pan and let it boil away completely while using a wooden spoon to loosen the cooking residues on the bottom and sides of the pan. When the wine has boiled away, return the fillets to the pan. Cook them in the pan juices for about 1 minute on each side, then transfer the fillets with all the cooking juices to a warm platter, and serve at once.
Beef Stew with Red Wine and Vegetables
THE FRESH, clean taste of this stew is uncomplicated by herbs and seasonings other than salt and pepper. To make it, you need good red wine, olive oil, and a few vegetables. In reading through the recipe you will notice that the vegetables are put in at different stages: the onions first, because they must cook alongside the meat from the beginning, suffusing it with sweetness; the carrots after a while; the celery later yet to keep its sprightly fragrance from being submerged; and at the very last, the peas.
For 4 to 6 servings
Vegetable oil
2 pounds boneless beef chuck, cut into 1½- to 2-inch stewing cubes
1½ cups sturdy red wine, preferably a Barbera from Piedmont
1 pound small white onions
4 medium carrots
4 meaty celery stalks
1½ pounds fresh peas, unshelled weight, OR 1½ ten-ounce packages frozen peas, thawed
¼ cup extra virgin olive oil
Salt
Black pepper, ground fresh from the mill
1. Put enough vegetable oil into a small saute pan to come ¼ inch up the sides, and turn on the heat to medium high. When the oil is quite hot, put in the meat, in successive batches if necessary not to crowd the pan. Brown the meat to a deep color on all sides, transfer it to a plate, using a slotted spoon or spatula, put another batch of meat in the pan, and repeat the above procedure until all the meat has been well browned.
2. Pour the fat out of the pan, pour in ½ cup of wine, and simmer it for a few moments while using a wooden spoon to loosen the browning residues from the bottom and sides of the pan. Remove from heat.
3. Peel the onions and cut a cross into each at the root end. Peel the carrots, wash them in cold water, and cut them into sticks about ½ inch thick and 3 inches long. Cut the celery stalks into pieces about 3 inches long, and split these in half lengthwise, peeling away or snapping down any strings. Wash the celery in cold water. Shell the peas.
4. Choose a heavy-bottomed pot with a tight-fitting lid that can later accommodate all the ingredients of the recipe. Put in the browned meat cubes, the contents of the browning pan, the onions, olive oil, and the remaining cup of wine. Cover tightly and turn on the heat to low.
5. When the meat has cooked for 15 minutes, add the carrots, turning them over with the other ingredients. After another 45 minutes, add the celery, and give the contents of the pan a complete turn. If using fresh peas, add them after another 45 minutes. If there is very little liquid in the pot, put in ½ to ⅔ cup water to help the peas cook, unless these are exceptionally young and fresh, in which case they will need less liquid. After 15 minutes, add a few pinches of salt, liberal grindings of pepper, and turn over the contents of the pot. Continue cooking until the meat feels tender when prodded with a fork. If you are using frozen peas, add the thawed peas when the meat is already tender, and let them cook in the stew for about 15 minutes. Altogether, the stew should take about 2 hours to cook, depending on the quality of the meat. Taste and correct for salt and pepper before serving.
Ahead-of-time note Like all stews, this one will have excellent flavor when prepared a day or two in advance. Reheat gently just before serving.
Meatballs and Tomatoes
For 4 servings
A slice of good-quality white bread
⅓ cup milk
1 pound ground beef, preferably chuck
1 tablespoon onion chopped very fine
1 tablespoon chopped parsley
1 egg
1 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil
3 tablespoons freshly grated parmigiano-reggiano cheese
Whole nutmeg
Salt
Black pepper, ground fresh from the mill
Fine, dry, unflavored bread crumbs, spread on a plate
Vegetable oil
1 cup fresh, ripe tomatoes, peeled and chopped, OR canned imported Italian plum tomatoes, chopped up, with their juice
1. Trim away the bread’s crust, put the milk and bread in a small saucepan, and turn on the heat to low. When the bread has soaked up all the milk, mash it to a pulp with a fork. Remove from heat and allow to cool completely.
2. Into a bowl put the chopped meat, onion, parsley, the egg, the tablespoon of olive oil, the grated Parmesan, a tiny grating of nutmeg—about ⅛ teaspoon—the bread and milk mush, salt, and several grindings of black pepper. Gently knead the mixture with your hands without squeezing it. When all the ingredients are evenly combined, shape it gently and without squeezing into balls about 1 inch in diameter. Roll the balls lightly in the bread crumbs.
3. Choose a saute pan that can subsequently accommodate all the meatballs in a single layer. Pour in enough vegetable oil to come ¼ inch up the sides. Turn on the heat to medium high and when the oil is hot, slip in the meatballs. Sliding them in with a spatula will avoid splashing hot oil out of the pan. Brown the meatballs on all sides, turning them carefully so they won’t break up.
4. Remove from heat, tip the pan slightly and with a spoon, remove as much of the fat as floats to the surface. Return the pan to the burner over medium heat, add the chopped tomatoes with their juice, a pinch of salt, and turn the meatballs over once or twice to coat them well. Cover the pan and adjust the heat to cook at a quiet, but steady simmer for about 20 to 25 minutes, until the oil floats free of the tomatoes. Taste and correct for salt and serve at once.
A head-of-time note The dish can be cooked entirely in advance and stored in a tightly covered container in the refrigerator for several days. Reheat gently before serving.
Winter Meatballs with Savoy Cabbage
For 4 to 6 servings
�
�� cup milk
A slice of good-quality white bread, trimmed of its crust
1 pound ground beef, preferably chuck
2 ounces pancetta chopped very fine
1 egg
Salt
Black pepper, ground fresh from the mill
1 tablespoon chopped parsley
2 tablespoons onion chopped very fine
3 tablespoons freshly grated parmigiano-reggiano cheese
1 cup fine, dry, unflavored bread crumbs, spread on a plate
Vegetable oil
1¼ to 1½ pounds Savoy cabbage
2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
2 teaspoons chopped garlic
⅔ cup canned imported Italian plum tomatoes, drained and cut up into coarse pieces
1. Put the milk and bread in a small saucepan, and turn on the heat to low. When the bread has soaked up all the milk, mash it to a pulp with a fork. Remove from heat and allow to cool completely.
2. Put the ground meat, chopped pancetta, egg, salt, pepper, parsley, onion, grated Parmesan, and the bread and milk mush into a bowl. Gently knead the mixture with your hands without squeezing it. When all the ingredients are evenly combined, shape it gently and without squeezing into balls about 1½ inches in diameter. Roll the balls lightly in the bread crumbs.
3. Choose a saute pan that can subsequently accommodate all the meatballs in a single layer. Pour in enough vegetable oil to come ¼ inch up the sides. Turn on the heat to medium high and when the oil is hot, slip in the meatballs. Sliding them in with a spatula will avoid splashing hot oil out of the pan. Brown the meatballs on all sides, turning them carefully so they won’t break up. When they are done, remove them from the pan with a slotted spoon or spatula and transfer them to a cooling rack to drain or to a platter lined with paper towels. Pour the oil from the pan, and wipe the pan dry with paper towels.
Essentials of Classic Italian Cooking Page 44