Stracotto

From Elizabeth David, Italian Food

• 500g lean beef - “braising steak”, skirt, or one of the lumps sold as “roasting joint” in English supermarkets. Preferably in a chunk rather than a flat steak, and NOT diced.
• 1 italian pork sausage, approx 85g/3oz.
• 1 onion, finely chopped
• 1 carrot, finely chopped
• 1 stick of celery, finely chopped
• 1 oz butter
• 1 tbs tomato puree
• small glass white wine
• 240ml/1 cup beef stock
• 2 cloves
• salt and pepper

Melt the butter and soften the onion, carrot and celery over a low/medium heat. It’s ok if they brown a little; the process takes about ten minutes. Brown the meat, both the beef and the sausage (deskinned), in a separate pan (this means fry over a medium/high heat until most of the outside of the meat is dark brown), then add to the soffrito. Deglaze the meat pan with the wine, then add to a casserole with the tomato puree and stock. The meat should be barely covered by the liquid. You can add 2 cloves at this point, if you wish.

Season, and place in an oven for 3+ hours on a low temperature - I use about gas mark 4 (180C, or 160C in a fan oven). You can place a cut to shape piece of greaseproof paper (a cartouche) on the surface before putting the lid on the casserole, if you wish (and the lid isn’t tight fitting); if you don’t do this, the top of the meat is likely to dry out. Check frequently towards the end of cooking to make sure it hasn’t dried up, and top up with hot water as required. The end result should have a thick liquid, with the meat almost falling apart - able to be cut with a spoon, as ED says. You may need to pour off excess fat before serving.

Variation: you can omit the sausage, and end up with a very nice dish of braised beef; but it won’t be Stracotto.

If you can’t get a red Italian sausage, then some of the specialty sausages, like toulouse or italian/sicilian would work; they must be very lean, and preferably spiced. Or just add some fennel seeds to a standard, high meat content, pork sausage.