Manzo Brasato alla Lombarda

Beef braised in stock and red wine in the style of Lombardy. This recipe is from The Cooking of Italy book from 1968.

Ingredients

• 3 pounds pasture-raised beef rump roast or bottom round, securely tied

• 8-10 half-inch pieces of pasture-raised bacon

• 1 teaspoon finely chopped organic garlic

• 1 teaspoon organic dried oregano

• Unrefined salt

• 3 tablespoon pasture-raised tallow

• 2 tablespoon grass-fed butter

• ½ cup coarsely chopped organic onions

• ¼ cup coarsely chopped organic carrots

• ¼ cup coarsely chopped organic celery

• 2 cups beef bone broth

• 1½ cup drained organic diced tomatoes

• ½ organic dry red wine

• 1 bay leaf

Instructions

1. Preheat the oven to 350°F.

2. Mix the finely chopped garlic, oregano, and salt together. Roll the pieces of bacon in the mixture.

3. With a sharp knife, make deep incisions in the beef and insert the pieces of bacon in the openings. Secure the rolls with a toothpick if necessary.

4. In a cast iron skillet, melt the tallow over moderate heat and brown all sides of the beef.

5. Melt butter over moderate heat in a cast iron dutch oven. Combine the coarsely, chopped onions, carrots, and celery on a cutting board and chop them into very small pieces. (This mixture is called a battuto; once cooked it’s called a soffritto.) Stir this mixture into the butter in the Dutch oven and cook until soft and lightly colored. Place the beef on top.

6. Discard most of the fat from the skillet, poor in the red wine and boil it briskly over high heat, stirring and scraping in the browned fragments that cling to the bottom and sides of the pan. Let the wine reduce to about ¼ cup.

7. Add it to the dutch oven with the broth, tomatoes, and bay leaf. The liquid should come about a third of the way up the side of the beef; if it doesn't, add more broth.

8. Bring the Dutch oven to a boil over high heat, cover it tightly and braise in the middle of the oven for about two hours, or until the meat is tender when pierced with a sharp knife.

9. To serve, transfer the meat to a cutting board and slice into uniform pieces. Add back to the dutch oven and serve.