How to make spezzatino di manzo con patate

I didn’t plan on blogging about this, but after the surprising amount of likes on facebook and instagram, I thought that I’d just share with you on making spezzatino di manzo con patate.

In Italian, spezzatino di manzo con patate means little pieces of beef with potatoes. And this was a dish that was love at first bite for me. Interestingly, the first time I had it was actually in a vegan restaurant, which makes it ironic. Hur hur hur.

Traditionally, beef is used for this dish, but you could also use other types of red meats like mutton,  while vegetarians can sub the beef with seitan.

(This is the one Cart made)

1. Fry some finely chopped onion, carrot and celery in extra virgin olive oil. (This is called a sofritto by the way)
2. When the vegetables look soft and the onion more transparent, add in the cubed meat and let it brown.
3. Then add rosemary, sage, thyme and bay leaf and then add in enough stock to cover the meat.
4. If you like, you can add a little tomato concentrate or tomato sauce.
5. Finally add some cubed potato pieces to make the broth even heartier.
6. Let the broth simmer on low fire for about an hour and you’ll come back to a most amazing and yummy dish!

(Don’t brush your teeth with this tomato concentrate)

You could pair the broth with polenta, or mashed potatoes. But I just eat it as it is! So yummy! In fact, greedy me actually finished a whole (small) pot by myself!

I do hope that you give it a try. Even though the simmering time takes a while, it’s a really easy dish to make, but so yummy and robust 🙂