Peppery

Peppery

Presentation

This beef stew isn't a quick dish, but a slow embrace of intense, rustic flavors. I'll guide you through this age-old recipe, which transforms a few simple ingredients—beef, plenty of black pepper, and red wine—into a meat so tender it melts in your mouth. Forget traditional stews; this is the deep, authentic flavor of Italy's culinary history.

Ingredients:

  • 1400g of beef (cover if possible)
  • 12g of black peppercorns
  • 0.75 litres of red wine (medium bodied)
  • about 5 tablespoons of olive oil
  • 3 cloves of garlic
  • salt to taste

Preparation:

Preparing the ingredients

1 Cut the beef into cubes of about 4cm, 2 peel the garlic cloves and 3 seal the black peppercorns in a tea bag or cheesecloth to prevent them from dispersing during cooking.

Start cooking

Pour the oil into a 4 skillet, add the garlic cloves, 5 sauté the meat pieces over high heat, stirring occasionally. Finally 6 add the red wine.

Browning the meat

7 Add the pepper, reduce the heat to almost minimum, and cover with a lid. 8 After an hour, give the stew a stir. After about another 2 hours, 9 remove the lid and, if necessary, let the excess liquid evaporate. Serve piping hot, perhaps with some hot polenta.

Advise

  • The peppercorns : to prevent them from scattering, I used one of those filters usually used for tea, but you can also enclose them in gauze tied with string.
  • Uniformity of cut : try to cut the pieces as evenly as possible, so that they will cook evenly without the risk of some starting to fall apart.

Author:

Luigi Silvestri Corradin

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