Hello everyone! Sorry for yet another long delay between posts. I've been settling in for the last few weeks of my trip here in Rome, mostly trying to get some translation work done.
While the weather here is still pretty warm, it is definitely beginning to feel like Fall (even moreso back in Cassino, which is where I took the pictures for this post). To me, Fall is the time for hearty, slow cooking dishes--which also have the added benefit of keeping your kitchen roasty-toasty. To that end, I decided to make the northern Italian version of pot roast: Brasato all'Amarone.
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| As usual, mine did not turn out quite so pretty |
This recipe isn't complicated, but it does have a fairly long list of ingredients, and you do need to start it a day in advance. Now, the traditional way to make this recipe would be with a bottle of Amarone wine, and a nice rump roast. I went in a slightly different direction, mainly out of necessity. First, Amarone is hideously expensive, even here in Italy. Perhaps if I lived in Venice I could find an affordable bottle, but I was not about to spend more than 30 Euro (on the low end!) on a bottle of wine that was going to be used for cooking. Instead, I went with a Valpolicella Ripasso, which is a close relative of Amarone.
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| I don't know whether this label is available in the US, but you should be able to find a Ripasso of some kind in most liquor stores. |
These wines are prepared in a slightly different fashion, which is what helps to give this dish its distinctive flavor. The grapes used to make Amarone are allowed to shrivel substantially on the vine, partially turning them into raisins and concentrating their flavor. In a Valpolicella Ripasso--made from the same type of grapes as Amarone--the grape juice is poured over the crushed grape skins from Amarone, imparting some of that concentrated flavor. The best part is that a Ripasso will run you around $15 a bottle (though you could spend more), and you'll still get some of that Amarone flavor that would be absent from any other type of wine. I also used a different cut of meat. The meat selection at my local grocery store varied greatly from week to week, and most of the time they had no type of beef roasts whatsoever. I eventually settled for one labelled "Muscolo di Bovino"--Beef Muscle.
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| Presumably it could be found on this chart...somewhere |
It worked out pretty well, though the meat was a bit dry when it was all said and done. The sauce, however, was incredible, making me confident that with the right cut of meat this would be a home run. Here are all the ingredients that you'll need: ~2lb rump roast (I used one about half this size, and I'm sure you could go a bit bigger without changing anything else), at least one bottle of Valpolicella Ripasso (You need a whole bottle for the cooking, and if you want wine to drink with dinner, you want to drink the same thing), 2 onions, 2 shallots, 2 carrots, 1 stalk of celery, whole cloves (I used 3), whole dried juniper berries (I used 7, and they should be available in the spice aisle), 1 bay leaf (I actually got to use fresh, but dried will work fine), 1 sprig of rosemary, ~1 tbsp butter, some flour, and of course salt, pepper, and olive oil. As I mentioned, you'll need to start this recipe a day in advance in order to give the meat plenty of time to marinate. I let it go a full 24 of hours and it was fine, so don't be afraid to give your roast a long soak. To begin, make all of your veggies and spices go from this...
to this.
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| Leave the clove whole, but crush the juniper berries a bit in your fingers. |
Take all those lovely veggies and put them in a pot (or other container) with the entire bottle of wine, about a tbsp of olive oil, and the rump roast.
Cover, put it into the fridge, and walk away for a good long time, at the bare minimum overnight. When this mixture has had a nice long time to get acquainted, take out the beef, pat dry with some paper towels, and then dredge through some flour liberally salted and peppered. Brown the floured beef on all sides in a sautè pan/braiser/dutch oven (again, cast iron would be ideal here) in a little olive oil.
Once nicely browned, pour in the marinade with all the veggies and herbs. You don't want the meat to be completely submerged; somewhere around 3/4 of the way is probably ideal.
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| This would probably have been better with a larger cut of meat. |
Bring the pot to a simmer, put on the lid, and then simmer for the next 3 hours. After the meat has cooked through, remove the roast from the pot. If you have an immersion blender now is the perfect time. If not, a fine sieve would work well too. I sadly had neither, and so had to make do with a colander. You want to pass this sauce through your sieve (or just blend it up), after having removed the bay leaf and the woody stalk from the rosemary. This should make your sauce nice and thick; if it's still too thin, you can add a bit of flour. Finally, add the butter to the sauce, and slice the roast into rounds and return it to the sauce. Taste to adjust the seasoning (you may need some more salt and pepper). Serve with a nice soft polenta, or some mashed potatoes. The sauce had a great herby, earthy flavor, with some brightness added by the menthol-y flavors of the bay leaf. As I mentioned earlier the meat wound up being a bit tough for me, but with a quality roast I seriously doubt this would be the case.
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| My sauce wasn't quite as silky smooth as I'd have liked, thanks to the lack of a sieve or blender, but it tasted damn good. |
Seriously, give this a try this Fall/Winter. There are a lot of ingredients and you need to start the night before, but it's super simple in execution. I had to fudge so many things and I was still happy with it; imagine if you did it the right way!
Until next time!
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