MUSHROOMS SPEZZATINO (STEW)

Stew with mushrooms is a tasty main dish that you can cook with various meats and various recipes. For Italians, the difference between stew and spezzatino, is that the last one is always cooked with diced meat, while stew is cooked with a whole piece of meat. Spezzatino in fact means fragmented.

Here we use the beef and the mushrooms to cook with brandy and milk instead of the usual broth, still used if milk were to condense too. Cooking is the classic one of the stews, very long, and then you’ll have to start it to prepare at least two hours before the meal. The stew with milk is perfect for children, thanks to the sweet taste, but also for the whole family and your guests.

MUSHROOMS SPEZZATINO (STEW)

Course Second Course

Cuisine Italian

Keyword Stew

Servings 2 people

Prep Time 20 minutes

Cook Time 90 minutes

Ingredients

• 300 g beef diced
• 200 g Mushrooms button
• ½ liter Milk hot
• 20 cl Meat broth hot
• 5 cl Brandy
• 10 g Butter
• 3 tbsn Flour all-poupose
• ¼ leek
• ¼ Onion
• ½ carrot
• 1 pinch salt
• 5 tbsn olive oil extra virgin

Instructions

1. Wash the leek and cut it (1) in thin slices. Then peeled the carrot and grate it (2) with a vegetables grater, and finally peel the onion and chop it (3) finely.
2. Now pour five tablespoons of extra virgin olive oil (4) in a large pot, in which also add the butter to melt over medium heat. When the oil is hot and the butter melted, add the onion (5) to fry, with the carrot (6) and the leek. Let cook over medium heat until the onions become transparent.
3. Then put the flour in a small bowl (7) and roll in the meat (8) to flower well. Then put it in the pan (9) where the sauce is now ready. So let them to sear for a few minutes.
4. When the meat has seared, pour the brandy (10) to make it ecaporated over medium heat, and once done, add the hot milk (11) to cover all the meat. Then stir well and let it go on cooking for about 90 minutes, adding occasionally a ladle of hot broth (12) if the milk is consumed too much. Cook with the heat to low.
5. While the stew cooks, work the mushrooms, wash them carefully (13) and then dry and put them on the cutting board. With the knife cut them (14) into pieces, to be put on a saucer (15) apart and use later.
6. Once you have cooked the stew for 90 minutes, also add the mushrooms (16) into the casserole, add salt (17), sprinkle with black pepper (18) and mix well, letting cook for another 20 minutes without the lid, so to evaporate a little bit of sauce to the bottom and get a tasty creamy sauce. When finished cooking, turn off the heat and let rest for about fifteen minutes before serving.