Chianina Beef with Red Wine Sauce
Recipe from An Appetite for Umbria by Christine Smallwood
Sagrantino red wine and Italian Chianina beef is used in this recipe, which comes from Christine Smallwood's An Appetite for Umbria.
Chianina beef is raised in Tuscany, near Arezzo – very close to the border with Umbria. It’s noted for its flavour, so is often used by Umbrian chefs. This recipe, from La Bastiglia restaurant in the hill town of Spello, features in An Appetite for Umbria, by Christine Smallwood (RRP £19.99) and appears here with permission.
It’s a lovely book that focuses on the people and food of Umbria, and is a companion to An Appetite for Puglia. La Bastiglia is a Michelin starred restaurant that’s popular with both locals and visitors. The terrace has great views over the Umbrian countryside.
Other Puglian recipes to try include traditional taieddha, pasta filled aubergines, or mushroom ravioli in a walnut sauce. They're all from An Appetite for Puglia.
Seasoned Lard-Studded Sirloin of Chianina with Sagrantino Sauce, Tomatoes and Dry Radicchio: Recipe
Ingredients - Serves 4
- 12 ripe cherry tomatoes
- extra virgin olive oil
- salt and pepper
- 2 Trevigiano radicchio (that's long, not round, radicchio)
- 2 Chianina beef sirloin steaks, about 700g each (or any top quality beef)
- 50g of seasoned lard, sliced finely, or streaky bacon
- 30g shallots, finely chopped
- sage and rosemary
- fresh garlic clove, chopped
- 600ml Sagrantino (an Umbrian red wine)
- aromatic seasoning (sea salt flakes, wild fennel, sage, rosemary, lemon peel – all chopped together)
- freshly milled pepper
- and some string
Method
- Cut the tomatoes in half horizontally, remove the seeds, sprinkle with oil and salt and put in a 140C oven for 1 ½ hours. Cut the radicchio into 4 lengthwise, sprinkle with oil and salt and put in the oven at 140C for about 2 hours.
- Remove the fat from the meat and cut 2 medallions of about 3cm high from each steak. Cut each steak to about halfway through in the direction of the meat fibres. Put the slices of lard into these cuts and secure by tying the string around twice.
- For the Sagrantino sauce, put the shallots, oil, herbs and garlic into a small pan and fry gently. Mix in the wine and reduce until it becomes syrupy. Strain, cool and keep to one side.
- Brown all sides of the meat in a very hot frying pan and then put in a preheated 200C oven for 5 minutes. Remove and let it rest for about 2 minutes in a warm place.
- Serve it sliced in half, this time in the opposite direction to the original incisions (against the meat fibres), ie all the way through, horizontally through the earlier cuts. Add the aromatic seasoning and fresh pepper, pipe a line of the reduced Sagrantino and arrange the tomatoes and radicchio to serve.
Try another recipe from Umbria - Pasta with Lamb, Saffron and Wild Fennel
