Brasato Al Barolo Recipes

BRASATO AL BAROLO - BRAISED CHUCK ROAST IN RED WINE

Steps:

• Place chuck roast, onion, carrots, celery, peppercorns, cloves, garlic, cinnamon stick, rosemary, and bay leaves together in a stockpot. Pour wine over meat and vegetable mixture to cover entirely. Cover stockpot and marinate for 6 hours in the refrigerator. Turn meat in marinade to make sure it is completely covered; return to refrigerator to finish marinating, about 6 hours more.
• Transfer chuck roast from marinade to a plate to rest; pat dry thoroughly with paper towels. Pour marinade through a strainer and into a bowl to separate vegetable mixture from wine, reserving both vegetable mixture and wine.
• Heat olive oil in the stockpot over medium-high heat. Brown chuck roast on all sides, 4 to 6 minutes per side. Reduce heat to medium. Add strained vegetable mixture to stockpot; cook with the chuck roast until fragrant, adding more oil as necessary to prevent burning, about 8 minutes.
• Pour reserved wine back into stockpot; add salt. Reduce heat to medium-low, cover, and simmer without removing cover for 2 hours. Remove cover, stir, and cook until meat easily shreds with a fork, 10 minutes to 1 hour longer. Transfer meat from cooking liquid to serving platter; tent with foil to keep warm.
• Return cooking liquid to a boil over medium-high heat; simmer until reduced to sauce consistency, 20 to 30 minutes. Discard cinnamon stick, rosemary, and bay leaves. Season with salt; puree mixture with a handheld immersion blender until smooth. Pour sauce over meat to serve.

BRASATO AL BAROLO

Steps:

• *Put Oven rack in middle position and preheat oven to 325 F. *Heat oil in pot over moderately high heat until hot but not smoking. *Meanwhile, pat meat dry and sprinkle with salt and pepper. *Brown meat in hot oil on all sides, about 10 minutes total.(If bottom of pot begins to scorch, lower heat to moderate.) Transfer to a plate using a fork or tongs. *Add pancetta to oil in pot and saute over moderately high heat, stirring frequently, until browned and fat is rendered, about 3 minutes. Add onion, carrot, and celery and saute, stirring occasionally, until vegetables are soften and turn golden, about 10-12 minutes. Add garlic, thyme, and rosemary and saute, stirring until garlic begins to soften and turn golden, about 2 minutes. Stir in tomato paste and cook stirring, 1 minute. Add wine and boil until liquid is reduced by about half, about 5 minutes. Add water and bring to a simmer, then return meat along with any juices accumulated on plate to pot. Cover pot with lid and transfer to oven. Braise until meat is fork tender, 2 1/2 - 3 hours. *Transfer meat to cutting board. Skim fat from surface of sauce and discard along with herb stems. Boil sauce until reduced by about one third, about 5 minutes, then season with salt. Cut meat across grain into 1/2 inch-thick slices and return to sauce.

BRASATO AL BAROLO (BRAISED SHORT RIBS)

Steps:

• Preheat oven to 375 degrees F
• In a large, heavy-bottomed skillet or Dutch oven, heat the olive oil over high heat until smoking. Season the ribs with salt and pepper and cook them over high heat until deep brown all on sides, about 15 minutes total.
• Remove the short ribs to a plate and set aside. Add the carrots, onion, celery and garlic to the pan and cook over high heat until browned and softened, about 4 minutes. Season with salt and pepper and stir in the red wine, tomatoes and juices, chicken stock and herbs, scraping the bottom of the pan with a wooden spoon to dislodge the brown bits. Brin the mixture to a boil and return the short ribs to the pan. Cover with aluminum foil and place in the oven. Cook for 2 hours, or until the mat in very tender and literally falling off the bones.
• To make the gremolata:.
• I n a small bowl, combine the parsley, lemon zest and horseradish and toss loosely by hand.
• Place one short rib in each bowl, top with a little of the pan juices and a handful of the gremolata, and serve immediately.

BRASATO AL BAROLO WITH POLENTA AND HORSERADISH GREMOLATA

Steps:

• Place the short ribs in a nonreactive baking dish or a large bowl and season them with salt and pepper on all sides, using approximately 1 teaspoon of salt per pound of meat. Cover the dish or bowl with plastic wrap and refrigerate for at least 1 hour and up to overnight.
• Heat 2 tablespoons of the olive oil in a Dutch oven or large high-sided sauté pan over medium-high heat until the oil is smoking and slides easily in the pan, 2 to 3 minutes. Place the short ribs in the pan to sear on all three sides (it's not necessary to sear the bone side), until the meat is deep brown, about 5 minutes per side. If you can't squeeze all of the short ribs in the skillet at one time, sear them in two batches, adding more oil to the pan to sear the second batch if it's dry. Remove the short ribs to a plate.
• Adjust the oven rack to the middle position and preheat the oven to 350°F.
• Reduce the heat to medium, add the remaining 2 tablespoons of olive oil, and heat it until almost smoking. Add the onion, carrot, and celery and sauté, stirring often, until the vegetables are soft and the onion is tender and translucent, about 10 minutes. Add the garlic and cook for about 1 minute, stirring constantly to prevent it from browning. Move the vegetables to create a bare spot in the pan, add the tomato paste to that spot, and cook for 1 minute, stirring, to caramelize the tomato paste slightly. Add the wine, increase the heat to high, and boil the wine for about 20 minutes, until it is thick and jammy. Add the tomatoes and their juice and sauté for about 2 minutes to meld the flavors.
• Return the short ribs bone side down to the pan. Add any juices that may have collected on the plate they were resting on and enough stock to come just to the top edge of the short ribs. Nestle the thyme, oregano, and rosemary sprigs in the liquid around the meat. Wrap the porcini in a doubled piece of cheesecloth, pull the corners toward the center, and tie it into a bouquet with a piece of cooking twine. Tuck the bouquet between the ribs, making sure the mushrooms are submerged in the liquid. If you have commercial-grade plastic wrap, which won't melt in the oven, cover the pan with plastic wrap. In either case, cover the pan tightly with aluminum foil and place the lid on it if it has one. Place the short ribs in the oven and cook until the meat is fork-tender and falling off the bones, about 3 hours. Remove the short ribs from the oven and remove the foil and plastic from the pan if you used it, being careful not to burn yourself with the steam that will rise from the pan. Set aside to allow the short ribs to cool in the braising liquid for at least 30 minutes.
• Remove the short ribs from the braising liquid to a plate. Pour the contents of the pan, including the vegetables and the bouquet, through a fine-mesh strainer into a medium saucepan (or bowl if you are not serving the short ribs now). Press down on the vegetables and the bouquet to extract as much juice as you can from them. Discard the contents of the strainer. Remove the porcini from the cheesecloth, discard the cheesecloth, and add the mushrooms to the braising liquid. Gently pull each short rib off the bone and remove the sinewy tissue that connects the meat to the bone. Pick any meat left on the bone or from the connective tissue and reserve to make the Francobolli di Brasato al Barolo (page 177). You can prepare the short ribs to this point up to five days in advance. Cover the pot with plastic wrap or transfer the meat with the braising liquid to an airtight container and refrigerate until you are ready to serve it. (You will proceed slightly differently.)
• If the short ribs are still warm from the braising liquid, bring the liquid to a boil over high heat, reduce the heat, and simmer until the liquid is the consistency of a thick glaze or thin gravy, stirring occasionally to prevent it from sticking to the pan; it will be thick enough to coat the back of a spoon.
• If you have prepared the short ribs in advance and are rewarming them, preheat the oven to 350°F. If the short ribs have been in the refrigerator, remove and discard the fat from the liquid. Pour the liquid into a Dutch oven or stovetop-safe baking dish and warm it over medium heat, then place the short ribs bone side down in the dish. Place the dish in the oven for about 30 minutes, basting the meat with the sauce occasionally, until the meat is warmed through. Put the dish on the stovetop, and cook as directed above to thicken.
• To make the garnish, combine the parsley leaves, celery leaves, and lemon zest in a medium bowl. Drizzle the leaves with the finishing-quality olive oil, sprinkle with sea salt, and toss gently to coat the leaves with the seasonings. Use a microplane or another fine grater to grate about 60 strokes of horseradish over the salad and toss gently.
• Spoon 1/2 cup of the polenta in the center of each of six plates. Place one short rib on top of the polenta and ladle a generous 1/2 cup of the sauce over each short rib. Divide the porcini evenly among the servings and serve any remaining sauce on the side. Pile the garnish on top of the short ribs, dividing it evenly, and grate a few additional strokes of horseradish over each serving, and serve.
• Barolo (Piedmont)

BEEF BRAISED IN BAROLO WINE (BRASATO)

Steps:

• Begin the day before you plan to cook the meat. Slice the onion, celery, and carrot, and put them in a bowl with the meat, bay leaf, and peppercorns. Pour the wine over the mixture and marinate it until the next day, turning the meat occasionally.
• Remove the meat, reserving the marinade, and pat the meat dry.
• Strain the marinade, bring it to a boil, and cook it until it's reduced by half. In the meantime, tie the meat with string so it keeps its shape and brown it in a pot with the butter.
• Once it's well browned on all sides, season the meat with salt, pour the reduced marinade over it, add the vegetables that it marinated with, cover everything, and simmer over a low flame until the meat is done, about two hours.
• When the meat is done remove it to a platter and remove the string. Remove and discard the bay leaf. Remove the vegetables with a slotted spoon and either put them through a food mill or blend them.
• Degrease the sauce, stir the blended vegetables back into it, pour it over the meat, and serve. The meat should be so tender it could be carved with a spoon.
• Serve it with mashed potatoes or a steaming polenta, and the other vegetables you prefer. And, of course, a bottle of Barolo.