Spezzatino con Patate e zafferano

Recipe By:

Dominique Rizzo

Serves:

I have always loved the simplicity of Sicilian cooking and it always amazes me how just a few simple ingredients can be turned into something deliciously amazing. Sapezzatino is like a type of stew/soup depending on what you add into the dish.

Spezzatino con Patate e zafferano

Ingredients

1/2 cup (125 ml) olive oil
1 tblsp butter
1 onion, diced
1 carrot finely diced
1 stalk of celery finely diced
1 kg stewing beef or chuck steak, cut into 3 cm cubes
800 g potatoes, cut into 3cm cubes
1 liters beef stock
Good pinch of saffron
1 tblsp corn flour
sea salt and freshly ground black pepper
1/4 cup chopped flat-leaf parsley
crusty bread, to serve

Method

Heat the olive oil in a large saucepan or heavy-based flameproof casserole dish over medium heat and fry the potatoes for 4-5 minutes until golden. Remove them from the pot and set aside
Add in the meat and cook for 4 minutes until sealed, remove it from the pan and set it aside. Add in the onions, carrots and celery and saute for 2 minutes or until translucent and softened
Add the meat back into the pot and cover with the stock, season well with salt and pepper and bring to a simmer. Cook for 1 hour until the meat is tender
Add in the potatoes and cook for a further 20 minutes being careful not to break them up too much
The consistency should be slightly creamy from the starches in the potatoes, if you want the stew to have a little more consistency to it, combine the tablespoon of the corn flour to some of the hot stock and return this to the stew along with the chopped parsley
Serve with crusty bread