Florentine Beef and Pepper Stew
by Rosemarie Scavo
I’m putting this whole story in because it’s just that good.

Backstory

The year was 1418. Florence’s elders were convening to address a pressing issue that had been neglected for years: an enormous hole in the roof of Santa Maria del Fiore. In 1296, construction had begun on the cathedral that was supposed to flaunt Florence’s newfound status as one of Europe’s most important economic centres. Instead, year after year, the high altar of a city enrichened by the silk and wool trades was subject to the whims of mother nature: downpours in the colder months and the scorching heat in summer. Rejecting the Gothic flying buttresses and pointed arches of their northern Italian city-state rivals like Milan, the elders announced a contest for designing what would then be the largest cupola or dome on earth.

Leading architects from near, far and wide flocked to Florence for their shot at fame and the chance to win the coveted sum of 200 florins. The ideal proposal would not include a central pillar to hold up the dome, despite many an architect insisting that this was the only way. A homely and hot-tempered goldsmith’s solution to this architectural conundrum soon captured the project’s overseers’ imagination. Filippo Brunelleschi, reputed for being both a buffoon and a genius, said he would build two domes, one inside supporting the outer cupola and with no scaffolding.

By 1420, Brunelleschi had managed to convince the overseers of the brilliance of his scheme and was made provveditoreor superintendent of the cupola project. When building commenced later that year, the amateur architect more than proved his worth by inventing a series of lifting mechanisms which were capable of raising even the heaviest building materials up to 180 feet above ground.

One of those building materials was a type of terracotta famous for its vibrant red colour and resistance to frost made in the nearby hilltop town of Impruneta. A true perfectionist, Brunelleschi made a point of visiting Impruneta to personally supervise the production of the tiles that would eventually grace the exterior of the cathedral’s outer cupola. The fornacini or kiln workers laboured long hours to get the results Brunelleschi wanted. During the second and final firing of the tiles, the provveditore noticed that the workers would often put a large pot inside the kiln close to its opening. Later on, they would then help themselves to the stew simmering gently inside after leaving it to cook for much of the day.

The dish the workers prepared for themselves while firing the terracotta tiles was what Florentines today refer to as peposo alla fornacina. Made by cooking diced beef in red wine and aromatised with a generous amount of peppercorns, Brunelleschi, according to local legend, is said to have fallen in love with the dish on his visits to Impruneta.

These days, you’ll find many variations on this recipe for peposo which include herbs, diced root vegetables and tomato passata or puree. Purists, however, are quick to point out that the Americas (and, thus the tomato) had yet to be discovered in Brunelleschi’s time. And, after trying the Tuscan-based food writers Emiko Davies’ and Giulia Scarpaleggia’s essential, pared-down interpretations (the recipe below is based on elements from their respective ones) of this dish, it’s hard to disagree with them. Made with just six ingredients – marbled beef, olive oil, wine, garlic, salt, pepper – it is one of the tenderest and heartwarming beef stews I’ve ever tasted.

A few notes on making and serving this stew. The pepper, although it sounds like a unusually large amount, is mellowed by the long simmer in the red wine. Don’t care for biting into the ‘black gold’ that once sent the Roman coffers broke? Don’t worry, neither do I. The solution? Collect the throat-tingling peppercorns in a piece of cotton gauze and remove the sachet from your casserole once it’s time to serve. Ah yes, serving. Like many pot roasts and stews, you’ll probably find the flavours of your peposo are enhanced by several hours of rest after cooking. So, make this in advance, reheat it gently and you’ll be rewarded with an even more aromatic stew come dinnertime.

Ingredients
2 tbsp olive oil
1 kg braising or stewing beef, diced into 3-4 cm pieces
3 peeled garlic cloves
1 tbsp black pepper corns, roughly ground and collected in a small of piece of tightly woven cotton gauze
salt to taste
bread to serve

Preparation
Heat olive oil in a heavy-bottomed casserole or stockpot. Brown the diced meat ion medium heat. When the meat is browned all over, add the peeled garlic cloves, peppercorn sachet and red wine. Bring to boil, then lower heat to a gentler simmer. Cook covered for 2 hours. Remove lid, add salt and cook on low-medium heat for another 45 minutes to 1 hour, to reduce cooking liquid. Taste, and add more salt if necessary.

Remove sachet and serve with plenty of unsalted Tuscan bread to mop up the wine and pepper-infused sauce. Buon appetito!

This is one of the best wines on earth in this price range. Stand it up for a good day or two before you drink it as there will be little crystal bits of tannin and acid in the bottom. Be sure to get it into the glass is two hours before you drink it. It will need that much time to open up.

Here’s another great recipe from the James Beard award winning, Gabriel Rucker. This one I pulled from his cookbook Le Pigeon: Cooking at the Dirty Bird.

As we’ve already had carrots, fennel, and a lot of vegetables you can blow them off from this dish.

Carrot Butter-poached Halibut, Anchovy-roasted Carrots, Fennel

One of our first (and most successful) fish items was halibut poached in carrot butter. We really wanted to include that recipe in this book, but we couldn’t remember what we originally served it with. So we experimented, and fennel came up the winner. After all of our experimentation, we decided we loved this new recipe so much that we ran it on the menu for a week and it has become a new staple. (SERVES 4)

2 pounds (900 g) small carrots, with tops
3½ cups (875 g) unsalted butter
3 anchovy fillets, minced

3 lemons Kosher salt 2 cups (500 ml)
fresh carrot juice 3 cloves garlic, crushed, plus 1 whole clove garlic
1 bay leaf
Zest of 1 orange
¼ cup (60 ml) extra-virgin olive oil
4 halibut fillets, each about 6 ounces (185 g)
Maldon flake salt

Fennel Salad
1 fennel bulb, sliced ⅛ inch (3 mm) thick using a mandoline
2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
2 tablespoons chopped chives
1 tablespoon chopped white anchovies (boquerones)
Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper

1. Preheat the oven to 350°F (180°C).

2. Remove the carrot tops, wash, and set aside. Peel the carrots and halve them lengthwise. In a sauté pan over medium heat, melt ½ cup (125 g) of the butter with the anchovies and the grated zest from two of the lemons. Add the carrots and season with kosher salt. Transfer to a baking sheet, spread in a single layer, and roast in the oven until slightly softened but still a little crunchy, about 12 minutes. Remove from oven and toss with the juice of one lemon.

3. In a shallow sauté pan over medium heat, combine the carrot juice, the crushed garlic, bay leaf, and orange zest. Cook until reduced by three-quarters, about 10 minutes. Add the remaining 3 cups (750 g) butter and stir until melted, then reduce the heat to very low and keep warm.

4. Next we’re going to buzz our carrot top pesto. Simply combine the carrot tops, the whole clove garlic, the olive oil, the juice of one lemon, and a pinch of kosher salt in a blender and blend until you have a fine pesto consistency. Set aside.

5. To make the fennel salad, in a bowl combine the fennel, olive oil, chives, and anchovies and season to taste with salt and pepper. Set aside.

6. Now, to poach the fish. Heat the carrot butter to 130°F (55°C) over low heat. Season the halibut with kosher salt and add the fish to the butter. Keeping the butter at 130°F (55°C), poach the halibut until you can press down on the fish with a fork and don’t feel a pop (that pop is connective tissue that hasn’t yet broken down), about 10 minutes. Using a slotted spatula, transfer the halibut to a plate lined with paper towels. Squeeze the juice of the third lemon over the fish and sprinkle with Maldon salt.

7. To serve, place roasted carrots in the center of four shallow bowls and top each with a halibut fillet. Top each halibut fillet with the fennel salad. Drizzle the pesto around the fish, spoon a tablespoon of carrot butter over each plate, and serve.

Wine pairing. 2017 R. Dubois & Fils Hautes-Cote De Nuit White Burgundy