INGREDIENTS (for six people):

1.5 kg of top quality lean beef, even better if it is the cut known in Italian as “priest’s cap” or chuck
250 gr of extra-virgin olive oil
3 large carrots
3 stalks of green celery
1 large onion
4 large garlic cloves
250 ml of dry white wine
a dozen desalted and filleted anchovies
a few desalted capers and a bunch of parsley
salt to taste

PREPARATION:
Take the piece of meat and using a well-sharpened knife with a sufficiently broad blade, cut deeply on all sides crosswise to make “pockets” into which to insert the desalted and filleted anchovies with a piece of garlic.
When you have completed this operation, dredge the meat in white flour. Use a pot that will hold the piece of meat as exactly as possible. In it, heat 2 tablespoons of extra-virgin olive oil and brown the floured meat on all sides until a light crust forms.
Remove the pot momentarily from the flame, adding the onion you sliced into large pieces, carrots and celery ribs that you have washed thoroughly and cut coarsely as well as the 2 or 3 leftover anchovy fillets and garlic.
Now mix all the oil and dry white wine. At this point, add enough water to almost cover the meat completely. Put the pot back on the flame and bring to a boil, adjusting the flame so as to maintain a slow boil, allowing it to cook for about two / two and a half hours.
When cooked, remove the meat from the rest of the ingredients and place it on a plate to cool, while the stock must be filtered with a large mesh sifter, adding the capers and parsley.
Should the sauce end up too liquid, you can boil it down over a low flame. When the meat has cooled, cut it into slices about 1-cm thick to be served with the sauce over a bed of polenta.

Contents curated by Brescia a Tavola