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ITALIAN RECIPES

It's Cold and Grey....Stews

Chicken Cacciatora with Mushrooms

Ingredients:

1 large chicken, cut into pieces
Flour
1 heaping teaspoon tomato paste, diluted in a cup of water
1/4 cup (50 gr) unsalted butter
1 ounce pancetta or seasoned lard, diced
1/2 ounce (10 g) dried porcini or more to taste, steeped for 20 minutes in hot water and
then sliced, or 3/4 pound (300 g) fresh cultivated mushrooms, sliced
A small onion, sliced

Preparation:

Flour the chicken pieces.
Sauté the sliced onion in the butter until it begins to brown, then add the lard or pancetta and the chicken pieces, and brown them over a brisk flame.

Stir in the water and tomato sauce (If you're using dried mushrooms, you may want to use the water they steeped in, filtering it lest it contain sand), cover, and cook the chicken until it's done (the meat will begin to pull back along the drumsticks), stirring the pieces around every now and again lest they stick down and burn.

10 minutes before the bird is done stir in the dried mushrooms. If, on the other hand, you're using fresh mushrooms add them five minutes before the bird is done, and cook uncovered over a slightly brisker flame so the water they give off will evaporate.
Serve with a zesty red wine, along the lines of a Chianti d'Annata or a good Valpolicella Classico.

Beef Braised in Barolo Wine

Ingredients:

3 pounds beef, either rump roast or a similar cut, not too lean or it will be dry
A bottle of Barolo or similar full bodied tannic red wine
A large onion, or 2 if you prefer.
A large carrot
A stalk of celery
A bay leaf
Peppercorns to taste
Butcher's twine
2 tablespoons butter and 2 tablespoons prosciutto fat (if need be use just 4 tablespoons butter)
1/4 cup cognac (optional)
Salt to taste.

Preparation:

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 and prosciutto fat.

Once it's well browned on all sides, sprinkle the cognac over the meat, if you're using it, and light it.
When the flames have gone out, 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.

Ghisau

Ingredients:

2 1/4 pounds (1 k) beef
An onion, minced
1/3 cup olive oil
1 1/3 pounds (600 g) potatoes
10 ounces (250 g) ripe plum tomatoes, blanched, peeled, chopped, seeded, drained and blended
2 ladles beef broth
Salt and freshly ground pepper
Shredded hot pepper to taste (optional)

Preparation:

Cube the meat, and peel and cube the potatoes.
In a broad terracotta pot, heat the oil and sauté the onion until it turns golden. Add the meat and brown it too, stirring the pieces about to brown all sides.

Add the blended tomatoes, broth, check seasoning, and reduce the heat to the barest simmer for a couple of hours or more, adding the potatoes after an hour. Should the sauce thicken too much, dilute it with a little more broth.

You can, if you want, also give it zing with some freshly shredded hot pepper.
Serve it steaming hot, with a Vermentino if you include the hot pepper, and with a Cannonau if you don't.

Peposo

Ingredients:

1 tablespoon of black pepper, coarsely ground for the occasion
1 pound stew beef, cubed
1 pig's foot (or a pound of pork or fatty beef, cubed)
1 onion, minced
A rib of celery, minced
1/2 a red pepper, minced
1 carrot, minced
1 pound peeled, seeded, and chopped tomatoes
1 1/2 cups dry red wine
2 crushed cloves of garlic
2 tablespoons of flour
2 tablespoons of olive oil
Salt to taste
Boiling water or broth
4 slices of Italian bread

Preparation:

...And asked the cook to come to Florence, with a boy agile enough to climb the scaffolding to deliver bowls of stew to the workers building the cathedral (this way they wouldn't loose time climbing down, going elsewhere to buy food, and climbing back up). Brunelleschi's workers went on strike to get their lunch hour back. Had he merely asked the cook to set up a catering stand, the idea would have been a smashing success.

If you are using the pig's foot, scrub it if need be and boil it for ten minutes. Drain it, let it cool, bone it, and cut the meat into thin strips.

Mince the onion, the carrot, and the celery; sauté the mixture in the oil in a pot over a medium flame. Add one of the cloves of garlic, some salt, and half the ground pepper.
Flour the meat, and when the onion's translucent, add the meat to the pot.
Let the meat brown, stirring occasionally, for about five minutes, then add the tomatoes and the red pepper. Let the mixture cook for ten minutes, then add the wine and bring it to a boil.

Reduce the heat and simmer the peposo for at least two hours, adding boiling water or broth as necessary to keep it from drying out completely and burning.

When the peposo's almost done (the sauce should be thick), toast the slices of bread and rub them with the other clove of garlic, then put them in a deep serving dish.
A few minutes before removing the peposo from the fire, stir in the remaining ground pepper. Carefully pour the peposo over the bread and serve.

Buon appetito!

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