大象传媒

Ingredients

300g spalebone beef or blade steak, in one piece
1 clove of garlic, peeled and thinly sliced
1 tablespoon finely chopped flat-leaf parsley
3-4 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
1 onion, peeled and very, very finely chopped
1 piece peperoncino (dried chilli)
3 or 4 x 450g tins Italian plum tomatoes, sieved or liquidised and de-seeded
1/2 Fonteluna sausage or salsiccia napoli (150g)
Maldon sea salt and black pepper

Method

First, prepare the spalebone or blade steak. Use a sharp knife to make 3 or 4 slits in the meat. Push a sliver of garlic and some chopped parsley into each slit.

Warm the olive oil in a wide, heavy saucepan. Add the meat and brown it well all over. This will take 10 minutes or so. Remove the meat from the flavoured oil and add the chopped onion and the chilli. Stir around in the oil and cook the mixture very, very slowly until the onion is transparent and soft. This is the key to a good sugo. Add the sieved tomatoes and return the meat to the saucepan. Take the outer fine skin from the Fonteluna sausage, and add the sausage to the sugo. (If the sausage is dry run it under warm water, score the side with a sharp knife and the skin will peel off easily).

Bring the sugo to a slow simmer. This sugo takes 2-2 1/2 hours to cook on a very low heat. Put a woode spoon over the pot and balance the lid on top. This was the sugo can reduce slowly, but most of the water that evaporates will drip back into the pot. Use a heat diffuser under the pot if you have one to prevent the sugo burning. Or pull the pot to the side of the heat.

After a couple of hours, the sugo will have reduced by a third. Taste it and season it with sea salt. The seasoning from the beef and sausage will have already added flavour. Add more salt if it tastes sharp.

Serve with chunky pasta like rigatoni or penne.

Reproduced with the kind permission of Mary Contini from Dear Francesca: A Cookbook With Love, Publ: Ebury Press, 20

Ingredients

Method

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