Peposo dell’Impruneta
Peposo dell Impruneta is a traditional Tuscan pepper stew recipe from the village Impruneta south of Florence.
Impruneta is a village known for its production of terracotta, and naturally the people used the clay ovens and the terracotta pots for preparing dinner.
I first came across Peposa dell’Imprunata in Lorenza de Medici’s ‘Tuscany The Beautiful Cookbook’, but found the recipe too ordinary to be worth the bother, even though I liked the idea of using black pepper as a main ingredient, like in the Roman dish pici cacio e pepe. Later I came across a more spicy version of Peposo in ‘Il grande libro della vera cucina Toscana’ by Paolo Petroni, and with a few adjustments this recipe turned out to be really, really peppery, strong and good. I did not even cook it slowly in a terracotta pot in the oven, but used a cast-iron pot on the stove.
Ingredients
500 g beef shank in huge chunks
Flour for dusting
500 ml red wine – preferably from Tuscany
500 ml beef stock
5 cloves of garlic
Sprig of rosemary
Spring of sage
Salt and olive oil
2 tbsp black pepper corns – or however much suits your palate. Pepper has a strong distinctive flavour, which can be overwhelming.
Preparation
Dust the beef chunks in flour and fry them in olive oil.
Pour in the red wine over the meat and bring the pot to the boil.
Add the peeled and smashed cloves of garlic along with beef stock, rosemary and sage.
Pestle the pepper corns and add them to the stew along with salt to taste. (The prescribed amount of pepper will make the dish very strong, so try adding a little at a time and give the flavour time to unfold before each tasting. Pepper does not cause an immediate burning sensation like chilli, but becomes hot as a strong aftertaste.)
Leave the pot on the stove and let it simmer for two hours or more depending on the size and the quality of the beef.
Serve your Peposo on a cold evening accompanied by polenta, good toasted bread or – like in this case – homemade fettuccine.
Peposo dell’Impruneta is a traditional Tuscan stew with black pepper as its main ingredient.
Italian Notes
Italian Notes
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