Cloudy March Saturday in Northern Italy... What to do... Download some new music and cook...
Result: Avigliana Stew #1:
Ingredients:
About 1 pound stew meet (vitello per spezzatino if you are in Italy)
About 1 pound mild Italian sausage (it's all Italian sausage here...)
Potatoes (as desired)
Two large carrots sliced
Two cloves garlic diced
One medium onion chopped
1/3 to 1/2 stick butter
Dried mushroom (porcini if available)
Sprigs rosemary
Almonds
1/2 cup port wine
1 cup beef broth (or bouillon)
Flour
Salt
Pepper
Coat beef with mixture of flour salt and pepper
In parallel, melt butter in iron dutch oven
Brown beef pieces in the melted butter, then remove and set aside
Brown garlic and onions in remaining butter (add more butter if necessary)
Cut sausage into one inch pieces and add to dutch oven and partially brown
Add port wine and return beef pieces to the dutch oven. Add carrots and let simmer while preparing the potatoes.
Peel and cut up potatoes (as many as desired... I more or less filled the remainder of the dutch oven)
Add broth and potatoes
Add sprigs of rosemary, mushrooms, almonds.
Add two teaspoons sea salt and 5 pepper corns.
Simmer about 90 minutes.
Recommend music album to be used during preparation: War, "Why Can't We Be Friends"
Serve with good Italian red wine (2004 Barolo for us tonight)
