An Italian classic, a marvelous braised beef which, with the San Gimignano-like potatoes, puts Tuscany in our dishes!
ingredients for 4 servings (cost about 6 € pp)
- 800 g beef shoulder
- EV sunflower oil
- Lard or fat from prosciutto or pancetta
- 1 medium onion
- ½ liter vegetable stock
- ½ bottle red wine or Vermοuth (already cooked to reduce the alcohol)
- Some dried mushrooms
- Some sultanas or other raisins
- 20 g pine nuts
- 1 large or two medium carrots
- 8 very small onions
- 4 large potatoes
- Salt
- 1 bay leaf
Stracotto (which means extracooked), is one of the most famous dishes of Tuscany. It is made in the pot from hard pieces of mainly beef, which is simmered together with vegetables in local wine and broth for as many hours as needed, until it becomes soft, very soft, very very soft!
So, the day before, we take a whole piece of shoulder and we pre-salt it.
The next day we wash and pat dry, cut the meat in pieces and then with a sharp knife, make some holes in the surface of the meat and insert in them a little lard or – if we do not have – pieces from the fatty part of the prosciutto or pancetta.
We chop the onion and we put it in oil to be subfried with a bay leaf.
When the onion has become soft, we take it out of the pot, we add (if necessary) a little more fat and put the meat to brown, being careful not to burn it and dehydrate it.
Right after, we add the red wine (in Chianti they use Sangiovese, if you do not have it, use a Merlot), the mushrooms and the stock, we check the salt and let the meat boil at a very low temperature for a few hours ( depending on the meat and the exact cooking temperature).
Meanwhile, in one other casserole we steam the small onions (peeled) and the carrots (peeled and cut in large pieces).
When we see that the meat is almost ready, we add the raisins in the sauce, which we have previously soaked in lukewarm water. At the same time, we lightly roast the pine nuts. 20 grams are enough.
We remove the meat from the pot, we let it rest and take care of the sauce composition. If it is thin we continue to reduce it. If it is thick, we add a little stock.
While the meat is resting, we cut each potato in 3 or 4 uneven pieces, which will remind us the Tuscan medieval skyscrapers and we gently boil them in salty water till tender. We pat them dry and we fry them in EV sunflower oil at 200o C.
Once the meat has rested well, we toss it in the sauce, and we serve it with extra sauce on top, the pine nuts and a little chopped parsley. And our potato skyscrapers, of course!
