“Stracotto di Manzo” means “extra cooked”, or “overcooked” beef. This delicious recipe from Tuscany requires a long time of cooking, but the preparation is simple and easy. It takes only 15-20 minutes to prepare in the morning, after which you can leave it to simmer for 6-8 hours the rest of the day.
It’s made with a piece of fatty beef which is usually used in English cuisine for roast beef. It must be a fatty piece of meat because the fat will melt slowly to give flavour to the final dish. We accompanied ours with homemade mashed potatoes.
Watch the video to see how we prepared the meat, and for all the important tips on this cooking technique.
Time
15-20 minutes of preparation, 5-8 hours of simmering.
Ingredients
This recipe was prepared for a dinner of 4 persons.
- 1 kg of fatty beef
- 4 carrots, chopped into big chunks
- 1 onion, chopped into big chunks
- 5-6 garlic cloves
Seasoning
- 1 table spoon of coarse salt
- 1 table spoon of whole black peppers
Liquids
- 1 bottle of red wine
- 1L of water or beef broth
- extra virgin olive oil
I. Season the meat
- Grind coarse salt and whole black peppers in a small food processor. You may also use ready-made ground black pepper but freshly ground whole black peppers are more fragrant.
- Generously coat all surfaces of your meat with the seasoning.
II. Seal the meat
- On a medium-high flame, add a generous amount of olive oil to cover the base of your pot. Wait for the olive oil to become hot.
- Starting from the fattiest part of the beef, cook each side of the meat for 2 minutes. After sealing, pick up the meat and set aside.
III. Deglaze the pot
- Add the carrots and onions into the pot for 2-3 minutes, and add a splash of water. The water and juices exuded from the vegetables will deglaze the beef fat at the bottom of the pot.
IV. Boil and simmer
- Add the garlic and rosemary, and put back the beef.
- Raise the flame to the highest, and add red wine. Use good red wine!
- Add water (or beef broth) up to half of the beef height. Wait for the water to boil.
- When the water starts boiling, lower the flame to its lowest, cover the pot completely and allow to simmer for 5-8 hours.
V. Prepare the sauce
- After 5-8 hours, use a strainer to remove the beef from the pot. Do this gently and carefully as the beef will be very soft and tender, and may fall apart.
- With a spoon, skim excessive fats on the surface of the sauce and discard them. You may also skim after blending the sauce in the next step.
- With an immersion mixer / hand blender, blend the remaining vegetables in the sauce. Thicken the sauce by raising the flame and allow some water to evaporate before serving.
We served our stracotto with homemade mashed potatoes.
Pantry Notes
Where we bought our ingredients in Singapore:
- Beef – Foodies Market
- Whole black pepper grains – Scoop
Be gentle to the meat
During the sealing, do not poke the meat with a fork or knife as you will lose the juices of the meat. It will not seal properly and become dry.
Alternative meats
This cooking technique can be used on any other fatty meat: mutton, lamb, or pork.
Alternative carbs
In the North of Italy, they serve the stracotto with polenta, which is also delicious.
You can also use the stracotto sauce to season pasta.
Tiong Bahru Kitchen 