Spezzatino di
Manzo
Slow-braised beef stew with red wine & mushrooms
Beef pieces braise slowly with red wine, onion, carrot, celery and mushrooms until tender in a concentrated, savory sauce.
Beef and carrots in a dark braising sauceBeef cooked slowly,
wine and vegetables in the sauce.
Spezzatino di manzo is beef cut into pieces and slowly stewed until tender. Onion, carrot and celery form a familiar aromatic base, while wine and stock provide the braising liquid. Cuts with connective tissue, such as chuck, become yielding with patient cooking.
Italian households make many versions, with potatoes, peas, mushrooms or tomato in different combinations. The home recipe keeps the red-wine and mushroom version, using a covered pot in a low oven. It is served as a meat course with its sauce; bread, polenta or potatoes can accompany it, depending on the rest of the meal.
Let’s make spezzatino di manzo.
Four main-course portions from 1 kg trimmed beef chuck. Use an ovenproof heavy pot with a close-fitting lid and prepared low-salt beef stock.
Four substantial meat-course portions; weights are for trimmed raw beef and prepared vegetables.
What you’ll need
- 1 kgtrimmed beef chuck, cut into 4 cm pieces
- 45 mlextra-virgin olive oil, divided
- 150 gonion, diced
- 200 gcarrot, diced
- 100 gcelery, diced
- 250 gcultivated chestnut mushrooms, sliced
- 250 mldry red wine
- 500 mlprepared low-salt beef stock, plus up to 150 ml if needed
- 1bay leaf
- 1small rosemary sprig
- to tastefine salt and black pepper
Cooking allows batch browning, vegetables, wine, a 2½-hour oven braise and final sauce adjustment; beef can need longer. Oven heating runs alongside browning. Sides are separate preparations. This recipe uses cultivated mushrooms, not unidentified foraged mushrooms.
How to make it
- 01
Heat oven and brown in batches
Heat a conventional oven to 150°C/300°F. Pat beef dry and season lightly. Heat 30 ml oil in the heavy pot over medium-high heat. Brown beef in three uncrowded batches, allowing about 5–6 minutes per batch and turning to color several sides. Transfer to a bowl; it will not yet be cooked through.
- 02
Soften vegetables
Reduce heat to medium. Add remaining 15 ml oil, onion, carrot and celery. Cook for 8–10 minutes, stirring and loosening the brown bits. Add mushrooms and cook for another 6–8 minutes until their liquid has mostly evaporated.
- 03
Add wine and braising liquid
Pour in wine and simmer for 4–5 minutes, scraping the base. Return beef and accumulated juices. Add 500 ml stock, bay and rosemary. Bring to a gentle simmer; liquid should come roughly halfway to two-thirds up the beef rather than submerge it.
- 04
Braise until tender
Cover and transfer to the oven for about 2½ hours, stirring and checking the liquid after 90 minutes. Add some of the extra stock if the pot is becoming dry. Beef is ready when a fork enters easily and pieces yield with light pressure; tougher pieces may need another 20–30 minutes.
- 05
Adjust sauce and rest
Remove the herbs. If the sauce is thin, simmer uncovered on the stove for 5–10 minutes until it coats the beef, stirring gently. Taste for salt and pepper. Rest off heat for 10 minutes, then serve with the sauce.
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