If you're looking for a delicious and comforting Italian casserole dish, we recommend Guanciale di Manzo, rich in Barolo or Barbera d’Alba red wine. This recipe involves slow cooking the beef cheeks until they're tender and melt-in-the-mouth. Serve with either potatoes or polenta for a satisfying main course. Mamma’s Boy Trattoria’s regulars will be familiar with this dish which is served on a bed of mashed sweet potatoes and roasted dutch carrots.
Ingredients:
I. 5 kg beef cheeks
1 x bottle red wine
2 onions
4 carrots
4 celery sticks
3 garlic cloves, unpeeled
3 tbsp grapeseed oil or light olive oil
3 tsp sea salt
1 bay leaf
8-10 black peppercorns
8-10 juniper berries
1 sprig of rosemary or 3 sprigs of fresh thyme
1 lt beef stock
freshly ground black pepper
Recipe:
To prepare the meat, trim any excess fat from the cheeks, but leave some on. Then place them in a large earthenware bowl or plastic container with half of the wine, cover it, and leave it in a cool place (7-8°C) for 12-24 hours. If you can't find a cool spot, you can refrigerate it instead.
When you're ready to cook, remove the meat from the marinade and dry it on kitchen paper. Keep the marinade for later use.
Chop the onions thickly and keep the carrots and celery whole as they will be discarded later.
In a large cast-iron casserole dish (an enamelled one is ideal), heat half of the oil. Then add the onions, carrots, celery, and garlic and stir occasionally over high heat to coat them in oil. Once the onions start to brown, remove all the vegetables from the dish and set them aside.
Add the remaining oil to the casserole dish. Sprinkle the cheeks with salt and place them in the dish to brown thoroughly. Return the vegetables to the dish, then add the bay leaf, peppercorns, juniper berries, and rosemary. Mix everything with a wooden spoon before adding the marinade and remaining wine. Taste and adjust the seasoning, if necessary.
Increase the heat to deglaze the dish and evaporate the alcohol. Then add the stock, making sure it's level with the meat but not above it. Bring it to a boil, cover the dish, and simmer on the hob for 30 minutes. Meanwhile, preheat the oven to 160°C/gas mark 3.
Transfer the casserole to the oven and cook for 10 hours, turning the meat every hour. If the liquid reduces too much and the dish starts to dry out, add any remaining stock or some water. By the end of the cooking time, the liquid should have reduced by about half.
Once the meat is cooked and tender enough to cut with a fork, discard all the vegetables. Strain the liquid through a sieve and return it to the casserole.
Serve the dish with boiled or mashed potatoes or polenta, assuming you're not already having a carb-heavy meal. If you want to add more vegetables, discard all the vegetables in the casserole 15 minutes before the end of the cooking time and add some freshly sliced carrots. To serve the way Mamma does it, prepare some sweet potato mash and roasted dutch carrots.