Winter

December, January, February

~ Winter recipes and ideas  ~

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Italian Beef Stew

In the fall and winter my family and I love making soups and stews for dinners.  This recipe is another old Italian family recipe.  What makes it an Italian beef stew?  Well, basically the addition of a can of tomato sauce and also the bold, spicy addition of red pepper flakes.  You can use just a pinch for flavor, or give it quite a kick by adding a few pinches.  Either way, it's delicious! This is a BIG batch of soup...you can easily cut this recipe in half for a small family.  But we love having leftovers to have again the next night. And I'm Italian...I never learned to cook small.   

Recipe

2 1/2 - 3 lbs beef cubes

5 cups chopped carrots (around 17-20 carrots or so, depends on their size)

5 lb bag of potatoes 

15 oz. can tomato sauce

minced garlic (at least 2 tsps ~ I use McCormicks) or fresh garlic (3 cloves, finely minced)

red pepper flakes (a few shakes)

salt (at least 2 tsps, you can taste as it cooks to see if you need more ~ and you probably will)

olive oil

1. Put your large stock pot on medium heat and drizzle enough olive oil to cover the bottom of the pan.  Once warmed, add your beef cubes to brown them. Once they start cooking, sprinkle the beef with your garlic, red pepper flakes, black pepper, and salt. Brown the outer sides of the beef, but it does not have to cook all the way through. Keep no higher than medium heat. Stir on and off and make sure your spices don't burn.  On medium, they shouldn't, but keep an eye on it. 

meat sprinkled with spices

2. Once browned, add enough water over the beef cubes to fill the pot about halfway. Add your can of tomato sauce.  Put on high heat and keep an eye on it until it starts to boil.  Then immediately turn down to low to medium, so that it is just simmering. 

filling pot about half way with water, then adding tomato sauce

3. Let the beef slowly simmer for a few hours.  Check and stir it every now and then to make sure nothing sticks or burns.  If the liquid starts to evaporate too much and you start seeing the beef cubes poke out of the water, add a little water to keep them covered as it cooks.  I like to always keep about an inch or two of water over the beef.  After it's simmered a while, you can taste it now to see if it needs any more salt or other spices.  How long you need to simmer the beef depends on the quality of your beef cubes.  I will often get a cheap cut on sale, and those cubes need to really cook for a long time to get soft and tender.  I will cook cheaper cuts for a good 4-5 hours.  If you got some better quality beef, simmering for about 2 or so hours will probably be enough. So once you start the simmering, in about two hours take a piece out and cut it and taste it. If it's almost tender and soft, good.  Time to move on to step 4.  If it still seems very tough and hard to cut and chew, you will need to simmer at least another hour or two. You can then recheck. 

4. Once the beef has well been on it's way to getting tender, you can then add the carrots and potatoes.  Keep in medium-low, with a slight simmer. After adding all the veggies, if any are sticking up out of the water/broth, you can add some water so that it comes just up over all the meat and veggies (see picture below). Stir well.  Then in a few minutes check the broth to see if you need any more salt or spices.  I usually add my carrots about 15 minutes before the potatoes. I like them to get a head start since they are such a hard vegetable.  I like tender (but not squishy) carrots in my soup.  I don't like them to still be hard.  So add your carrots, and then in about 15 minutes, add your potatoes. Then you cook for about 30-45 minutes, or until the carrots and potatoes are tender and done. Then take the pot off the burner.  Those potatoes keep the stew HOT for quite a while, even off the heat. You can easily let it sit for a good half hour or so before serving, if you'd like.  The stew will still be hot.

  this is how I measure the carrots....a very abundant cup

if you need to add any water after you have dumped all your veggies in, don't overdue it...the broth should just barely be covering all the meat and veggies, otherwise you will have watered-down broth which loses a lot of its savory, deep flavor

And there it is!  I hope you love it like we do.  Once autumn starts and then all winter long, we enjoy cooking up lots of soups and stews for a warm and filling, comforting meal. 

TIP: Be careful to never add too much water to start with when making soups and stews.  You can always add more as you go along (which you usually need to, because as the soup simmers it loses a lot via the steam).  Too much water will take away a lot of the deep flavors you are wanting.  It's better to add as you go along. 

TIP: Also be sure to taste it every now and then as you go along. You sometimes need to add more salt or spices, depending on your taste. 

By the way, depending on the type of beef you are using, some create a much deeper, darker broth, while other beef cubes do not get as juicy as it cooks and therefore the broth is lighter in looks.  If you stew comes out orange, like pumpkin orange (or perhaps I should say carrot orange in this case), that is normal.  Mine often comes out more orange.  This time I splurged and got a really good beef, and it made a very dark, rich broth.  This will change the flavor too.  Either way, my family and I love it.