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Brasato al Barolo (Beef Braised in Red Wine)

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January 21, 2021

Pre-pandemic my husband randomly chose a region of Italy.  Most of our meals for the month were traditional foods of that region.

In response to the pandemic, I reduced my marketing, with rare exception, to one supermarket trip once a week.  Obtaining the ingredients to create very specific regional Italian cuisine became difficult with such a shopping regimen.  Meal planning, though still Italian, reverted to dishes for which I could obtain the necessary ingredients at the supermarket supplemented by deliveries from Amazon.

Home-cured pancetta diced and ready to be cooked. Good quality pancetta can be purchased. Be sure to have it sliced thickly.

Amazon is my source for Italian flour, several types of which I use for making pasta, bread, pizza and cake.  Carnaroli rice can be difficult to obtain under the best of circumstances but is available on Amazon.  Some of the ingredients for gelato are impossible to find in retail shops making Amazon the go-to source.

Other items, like specific types of cheeses or cured meats or olives, can only reasonably come from local retail markets.  The same is true for produce and an array of other ingredients.  One marketing trip a week to a general supermarket made it impossible to gather many of the required ingredients so the one-region-a-month-cooking-and-eating regimen fell victim to the pandemic, at least temporarily.

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I made food from Piemonte (Piedmont) while our region-a-month plan was still active.  Piemonte has cows, so beef and dairy figure prominently in the cuisine.  Piemonte is also home to Barolo, among other wonderful wines.

Piemontese food does not shy away from calories or flavor!

This dish makes use of two of the stars of Piemontese cuisine, beef and wine.  The most traditional recipes call for a whole filet.  The wine is traditionally Barolo.

Fresh bay leaves have tremendously more aroma than dried ones.

There was a time when Barolo was affordable.  It is no longer a budget-friendly wine and certainly not one that I would use to braise beef in, even if it’s filet.  If you’re interested in how Barolo became so well-known, watch the movie Barolo Boys.

It’s rare to find a modern recipe that simply specifies Barolo as the red wine.  Even when the traditional name of the dish, Brasato al Barolo, is used, the wine is rarely Barolo.  Calling this Brasato al Vino would be more accurate but that name doesn’t really convey the historic context of the dish.

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I’ve made this with filet that I dutifully larded with my home-cured pancetta.  While the taste was good, the texture of filet after braising was not good, even with the larding.

After that first attempt, I decided to use a cut more commonly used for long, slow, moist cooking even if it was not as high-brow as filet.  Once I made that decision, I started doing recipe research that stretched beyond my several very traditional multi-volume sets of Italian regional cuisine published in Italy in Italian.  I discovered that other (iconoclastic English-speaing) cooks had made the same shift to “lesser” cuts of meat.

I particularly like brisket that’s been braised though a nicely marbled chuck roast would work too.

Fresh sage leaves are better than dried when it comes to flavor.

The dish was a hit when made with brisket.  Truth be told, the family didn’t care to ever have it again when I made it with filet.  With the textural change from the brisket it’s become part of our standard menu rotation.

This is a perfect dish for winter.  It’s great for entertaining as it is actually better if made the day before and reheated just before serving.

Oh, and if you actually make it with Barolo, please invite me to dinner!

Print Recipe
 Brasato al Barolo (Beef Braised in Red Wine)
Since Barolo is so expensive, most contemporary recipes call for another full-bodied red wine. I have used Zinfandel as well as an Argentine wine that was 60% Merlot and 40% Syrah with great success. The meat can be served without refrigerating first but refrigeration makes it easier to get neat slices. If not refrigerating, pour the hot sauce on the sliced meat and serve immediately. If you don’t have a stash of garlic oil on hand, smash two cloves of garlic and sauté in the olive oil until golden then remove the garlic.
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Course Mains, Meats
Cuisine Italian
Prep Time 30 minutes
Cook Time 4 hours
Passive Time 24 hours
Servings
people
Ingredients
Course Mains, Meats
Cuisine Italian
Prep Time 30 minutes
Cook Time 4 hours
Passive Time 24 hours
Servings
people
Ingredients
Votes: 0
Rating: 0
You:
Rate this recipe!
Instructions
  1. Combine beef with the onion, carrot, celery, garlic, and wine. Cover and refrigerate overnight.
  2. The next day, remove the beef and wipe dry.
  3. Strain the marinade. Reserve the solids and liquid separately.
  4. Dredge the beef in flour.
  5. Sauté pancetta in garlic oil over low heat until it renders its fat and browns. Remove pancetta and reserve.
  6. Brown the beef in the rendered fat. Remove the beef.
  7. Add the vegetables to the pan and sauté until softened and the onions are translucent.
  8. Add the tomato paste. Sauté the tomato paste briefly to darken and sweeten it.
  9. Add the reserved marinade to the pan along with the bay leaves, cloves, rosemary, sage leaves, cinnamon, juniper berries and peppercorns. Bring to a boil, scraping up any browned bits.
  10. Add the beef. Season with salt. Braise till tender, partially covered, approximately 3 hours.
  11. Remove the beef and refrigerate, tightly covered.
  12. Strain the braising liquid. Discard the solids and refrigerate the liquid.
  13. When the beef is cold, slice it against the grain and put in an ovenproof pan or casserole.
  14. Skim the chilled braising liquid.
  15. Heat the de-fatted braising liquid with the reserved fried pancetta.
  16. When the braising liquid comes to a boil, remove from heat and add the Marsala. Pour the liquid over the beef, cover the pan, and heat at 350°F for approximately 1 hour.
Recipe Notes

Copyright © 2021 by Villa Sentieri, LLC. All rights reserved.

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Recipes

Ragù alla Bolognese

4 Comments

March 11, 2020

I grew up eating exactly one type of tomato sauce for pasta: my mother’s long-simmered, Italian-American-but-based-on-Southern-Italian (Calabrese, to be exact) ragù.

OK, OK, I sometimes ate Aunt Margie’s or Aunt Mamie’s version of the same sauce but we’re talking very minor variations on a theme.

My mother made pasta other ways than with ragù, most commonly with beans as in pasta e fagioli.  But if we were going to eat pasta for pasta’s sake, not mixed with beans or in soup, it was ALWAYS served with her ragù.

My recipe for Lasagna Bolognese will be posted in a few weeks. Get ready by making Ragù alla Bolognese and putting it in the freezer!

When I went away to university at the age of 17 this is one of the first things that I learned to cook.  Well, sort of.  There’s a bit of a learning curve but even my first attempt was respectable.

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I now make scores of tomato-based sauces on a regular basis but I keep going back to three of them over and over:

  1.   My mother’s ragù.
  2.   Ragù alla Bolognese.
  3.  Ragù del macellaio (the butcher’s ragù).

There are so many childhood memories attached to my mother’s ragù that I can’t imagine a time when it wouldn’t be my favorite.

As far as I’m concerned, Ragù alla Bolognese is the gold standard for those tomato-based pasta sauces made with ground meat.  (My mother’s ragù, on the other hand, is made with large pieces of pork.  Other meats can be added but the pork is always there.)

It is really important that the vegetables for Ragù alla Bolognese be cut in tiny dice, 1/8 on a side, often called brunoise.

Ragù del macellaio is very good but, as you might expect for a sauce linked to a butcher, it is made with an array of meats—pretty much anything you have.  I always end up with odds and ends of meat in my freezer, a bit of beef, a bit of pork, some sausage, a piece of chicken, some pancetta, and so forth.  I grind them all up and make the sauce.  The fact that it cooks, unattended, in a slow-cooker all day is an added bonus.

Just as there is an official Pesto alla Genovese recipe, there is an official Ragù alla Bolognese recipe that was codified in the 1980’s.  The ingredients go something like this:

  • 300 grams ground beef, preferably thin flank aka skirt (finta cartella in Italian)
  • 150 grams pancetta, minced
  • 50 grams carrot, minced
  • 50 grams celery, minced
  • 50 grams onion, minced
  • 30 grams triple-concentrated tomato paste
  • 1/2 glass red or white wine
  • 180 ml milk
  • olive oil
  • salt and pepper

Every family in Bologna probably has a slightly different version.

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Some aspects of the recipe are notable.  There is no garlic.  There are no herbs.  The amount of tomato is quite modest.  Probably the biggest differences I see in credible recipes for Ragù alla Bolognese is whether or not to add milk or cream.  The official version clearly includes it but many otherwise solid recipes do not.

This is not a “tomatoey” sauce.  It’s really ground meat held together with a bit of tomato “binder.”

The version that I make most often varies somewhat from the official one.  I add a hint of garlic and more tomato.  I don’t typically use pancetta though it’s a great addition.  I never add milk or cream.

So, I’ve done it, I’ve laid down a gauntlet.  I’m advocating a recipe that’s not the official one.  I can tell you, however, that it’s darn good.

Give it a try and let me know what you think.

Print Recipe
 Ragù alla Bolognese
I make garlic oil and keep it in a squeeze bottle by the stove. It comes in really handy for cooking and for flavoring finished dishes. You can use plain extra-virgin olive oil if you wish. In fact, that would be more traditional than garlic. For added flavor, sauté 150 grams of minced pancetta in the olive oil until the fat is rendered. Remove the cooked pancetta. Brown the meat in the oil. Add the cooked pancetta to the meat just before adding the wine. Ragù alla Bolognese should be served with a wide long pasta such as mafalde or linguine.
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Course Pasta, Noodles, and Sauces
Cuisine Italian
Prep Time 30 minutes
Cook Time 5 hours, mostly unattended
Servings
liters
Ingredients
Course Pasta, Noodles, and Sauces
Cuisine Italian
Prep Time 30 minutes
Cook Time 5 hours, mostly unattended
Servings
liters
Ingredients
Votes: 0
Rating: 0
You:
Rate this recipe!
Instructions
  1. Heat the butter in a heavy-bottomed sauté pan. Add the celery, carrot, and onion.
  2. Sauté the celery, carrot, and onion in the butter until soft without browning. Reserve.
  3. Heat the garlic oil, or extra-virgin olive oil, in a heavy-bottomed sauce pan. Add the beef and pork, if using.
  4. While the meat is cooking, break it up into small bits.
  5. Sauté the beef and pork, if using, in the garlic oil until a lot of fond develops.
  6. Add the wine and boil it all away, loosening the fond from the bottom of the pan.
  7. Pass the canned tomatoes through a food mill.
  8. Add the sautéed vegetables, the tomatoes that have been passed through a food mill, and bay leaf, if using.
  9. Season with salt and pepper.
  10. Simmer 3 to 4 hours partially covered, stirring frequently, until reduced by 50%.
Recipe Notes

Copyright © 2020 by Villa Sentieri, LLC. All rights reserved.

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