Roman Beef Stew

Warm and tasty Roman beef stew makes a hearty one course dinner on a cold day.

This traditional Roman dish has to simmer for a couple of hours, but apart from that it is quite easy to cook, it tastes fantastic and it can be served as a piatto unico. The recipe is very similar to Elizabeth David’s in Italian food, but there are slight differences. For instance I like to give the sauce an extra kick by adding peperoncino.

Ingredients

1 kg beef cut into cubes
2 slices of lardo or speck (bacon can be used, if it is not too smokey)
1 sliced onion
2 sliced cloves of garlic
1 pepperoncino/chili pepper
100 ml of red wine
100 ml of beef stock
2 tbsp of tomato puree (paste)
Olive oil
Fresh marjoram, salt and pepper

Preparation

Cut the lardo into thin strips and fry them in olive oil.
Turn down the heat and fry onion and garlic until soft and glasslike.
Add beef and fry until evenly browned.
Turn up the heat and add wine.
Let the alcohol evaporate before turning down the heat.
Stir in tomato puree, beef stock, marjoram, salt and peperoncino
Let the stew simmer for at least 1 hour (sometime the stew gets better the longer it is allowed to simmer. It depends very much on the meat and the cut).
Add more liquid if necessary.
Roman beef stew is ready when the meat is very tender and the sauce is real thick and tasty.

Other recipes like Roman beef stew

Slow cooked beef stew

Veal stew recipe

Stracotto beef stew