{"id":7786,"date":"2021-01-21T12:43:21","date_gmt":"2021-01-21T19:43:21","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/villasentieri.com\/?post_type=recipe&p=7786"},"modified":"2026-09-02T10:58:37","modified_gmt":"2026-09-02T17:58:37","slug":"brasato-al-barolo","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/villasentieri.com\/index.php\/2021\/01\/21\/brasato-al-barolo\/","title":{"rendered":"Brasato al Barolo (Beef Braised in Red Wine)"},"content":{"rendered":"

January 21, 2021<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

Pre-pandemic my husband randomly chose a region of Italy.\u00a0 Most of our meals for the month were traditional foods of that region.<\/p>\n

In response to the pandemic, I reduced my marketing, with rare exception, to one supermarket trip once a week.\u00a0 Obtaining the ingredients to create very specific regional Italian cuisine became difficult with such a shopping regimen.\u00a0 Meal planning, though still Italian, reverted to dishes for which I could obtain the necessary ingredients at the supermarket supplemented by deliveries from Amazon.<\/p>\n

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Home-cured pancetta diced and ready to be cooked. Good quality pancetta can be purchased. Be sure to have it sliced thickly.<\/span><\/strong><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Amazon is my source for Italian flour, several types of which I use for making pasta, bread, pizza and cake.\u00a0 Carnaroli rice can be difficult to obtain under the best of circumstances but is available on Amazon.\u00a0 Some of the ingredients for gelato are impossible to find in retail shops making Amazon the go-to source.<\/p>\n

Other items, like specific types of cheeses or cured meats or olives, can only reasonably come from local retail markets.\u00a0 The same is true for produce and an array of other ingredients.\u00a0 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.<\/p>\n

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I made food from Piemonte (Piedmont) while our region-a-month plan was still active.\u00a0 Piemonte has cows, so beef and dairy figure prominently in the cuisine.\u00a0 Piemonte is also home to Barolo, among other wonderful wines.<\/p>\n

Piemontese food does not shy away from calories or flavor!<\/p>\n

This dish makes use of two of the stars of Piemontese cuisine, beef and wine.\u00a0 The most traditional recipes call for a whole filet.\u00a0 The wine is traditionally Barolo.<\/p>\n

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Fresh bay leaves have tremendously more aroma than dried ones.<\/span><\/strong><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

There was a time when Barolo was affordable.\u00a0 It is no longer a budget-friendly wine and certainly not one that I would use to braise beef in, even if it\u2019s filet.\u00a0 If you’re interested in how Barolo became so well-known, watch the movie Barolo Boys<\/a>.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s rare to find a modern recipe that simply specifies Barolo as the red wine.\u00a0 Even when the traditional name of the dish, Brasato al Barolo, is used, the wine is rarely Barolo.\u00a0 Calling this Brasato al Vino would be more accurate but that name doesn\u2019t really convey the historic context of the dish.<\/p>\n

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I\u2019ve made this with filet that I dutifully larded with my home-cured pancetta.\u00a0 While the taste was good, the texture of filet after braising was not good, even with the larding.<\/p>\n

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.\u00a0 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.\u00a0 I discovered that other (iconoclastic English-speaing) cooks had made the same shift to \u201clesser\u201d cuts of meat.<\/p>\n

I particularly like brisket that\u2019s been braised though a nicely marbled chuck roast would work too.<\/p>\n

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Fresh sage leaves are better than dried when it comes to flavor.<\/span><\/strong><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The dish was a hit when made with brisket.\u00a0 Truth be told, the family didn\u2019t care to ever have it again when I made it with filet.\u00a0 With the textural change from the brisket it\u2019s become part of our standard menu rotation.<\/p>\n

This is a perfect dish for winter.\u00a0 It\u2019s great for entertaining as it is actually better if made the day before and reheated just before serving.<\/p>\n

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

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Brasato al Barolo (Beef Braised in Red Wine)<\/h2>\n
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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\u2019t have a stash of garlic oil on hand, smash two cloves of garlic and saut\u00e9 in the olive oil until golden then remove the garlic.<\/div>\n
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Prep Time <\/span>30 minutes<\/span><\/span> mins<\/span><\/span><\/div>
Cook Time <\/span>4 hours<\/span><\/span> hrs<\/span><\/span><\/div>
Total Time <\/span>1 day<\/span><\/span> d<\/span> 4 hours<\/span><\/span> hrs<\/span> 30 minutes<\/span><\/span> mins<\/span><\/span><\/div><\/div>\n
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Servings: <\/span>8<\/span> people<\/span><\/span><\/div><\/div><\/div>\n <\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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Ingredients
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