Italian Pot Roast (Tócco Roast)

 

When I started a new job with Bozell, Jacobs, Kenyon & Eckhart back in 1985, I was given the chance to join a country club. I am a horrible golfer and have no patience for the game, so the opportunity to parade my limitations in front of my fellow members had little appeal. I was, however, an avid pheasant hunter. A new private hunting club had just opened in Prior Lake, MN. I asked for permission to join and became one of the original members of the Minnesota Horse and Hunt Club.

The club house was a big, hewn log structure which featured an enormous river-rock fireplace. I fell in love with the look and the next two homes I built embraced that hunting lodge look...lots of wood and river-rock fireplaces. Wood-burning, of course. Fires were a nightly routine and accounted for my annual purchase of 10 cords of firewood. My two sons loved the nightly ritual and called them "roar fires" from the sound of 15 oak logs simultaneously catching fire.

Winter is coming...

So for 42 years I have been utilizing wood-burning fireplaces. When the pandemic hit, Becky and I started to think about how we could update the space that we now quarantined in daily. A lot of the space had been re-purposed. The boys' mudroom was now serving as a 2nd pantry for all my pasta and canned goods inventory. I had built a special concrete deck in the garage that accommodated 5 cords of firewood, but now it was used for an additional freezer and refrigerator. There was simply not enough space for all my cooking paraphernalia and food inventory.

So we hired an architect/designer to help us switch the house from a family oriented hunting lodge to a contemporary, empty nester retreat. The focus would be on the two things we did most in our home....cooking and watching movies/streaming TV shows. Going forward, it was incredibly fun. A whole new look...new fixtures....new color schemes...new materials.

But there was one issue that was extremely difficult....the elephant in the Great Room. Continue with the 42-year tradition of wood-burning fires or switch over to a more contemporary gas fireplace? That was quite a difficult decision....one that I wrestled with endlessly for 2 months. I'm OCD and the thought of breaking a 42 year-long pattern was hard.

The big pros for staying with wood were the incredible smell and crackling wood. A "roar fire" every night in your living room! But then there were the cons. Collecting 140 pounds of firewood every morning, often in the cold and snow. Burning all that wood required a massive fireplace cleanup every Sunday....a half ton of logs gives off a shitload of ash. Fuel cost per fire runs about $20, but each fire only lasts 90 minutes. So you have an operating cost of about $14 per hour.

With my 70th birthday just over the horizon, simplicity and convenience won out. A modern, linear gas fireplace was the choice. No more hauling wood each morning. No weekly cleanups. Fires on demand with the push of a button. Same amount of heat, just no smell and crackle. Many days we just keep the fireplace going all day because the operating cost is just 19¢ per hour. So we've had it for 2 months now and we could not be happier with the decision. But we can still scratch the wood burning itch. We bought a Solo Stove Yukon for outdoor bonfires...so, much to the joy of my 25-year wood supplier, I'm still buying my firewood by the truckload.  (summer is coming....)

Liguria is a region in northern Italy that gets little attention from the culinary world. It's big brother, Tuscany, gets all of the accolades. But I stumbled across this Laurel Evans' Tócco Roast recipe that is an entirely different take on pot roast. In Liguria, they use a sauce very similar to Bolognese to braise the beef in. This results in an incredibly rich dish....the meat draws the flavor from the sauce and the sauce benefits from the flavor of the roast. 

When cooked, it is used in one of two different ways in Liguria. Most often, it is used as a stuffing for making beef ravioli. But my favorite is to slice it very thin and serve it over pappardelle with a generous helping of that extraordinary sauce. This recipe takes awhile, for it calls for at least a 4-hour braise. But I found a way to make that an easy step. Once I slide it into the oven, I grab the fireplace remote, turn on the fire and settle in for a 4-hour nap. And there is no ash to clean up when I awake (-:

INGREDIENTS

1/3 ounce dried porcini mushrooms

4 tablespoons olive oil

2 pounds of chuck roast, well marbled

1 large celery stalk, finely minced*

1 medium onion, finely minced*

2 large carrots, minced*

3/4 cup dry white wine

Kosher salt

2 tablespoons tomato paste

1 cup beef broth, plus more as needed

1 bay leaf

1 sprig rosemary

5 sage leaves

16 ounces pappardelle, cooked al dente

* Instead of mincing by hand, drop them all in a food processor and pulse until finely minced

DIRECTIONS

1. Place the dried mushrooms in a small bowl and cover with hot water. 
2. Set aside to rehydrate for 30 minutes.
3. Strain and finely chop the mushrooms; reserve ½ cup soaking liquid.
4. Preheat oven to 200º.
5. Heat the olive oil in a dutch oven over medium heat.
6. Add the meat and cook, turning occasionally, until well browned all over, about 10 minutes.
7. Season meat with 1/4 teaspoon salt, lower heat and add vegetables.
8. Sauté, stirring often, until vegetables are soft, about 10 minutes.
9. Add mushrooms, the mushroom soaking liquid, wine, ½ teaspoon salt, tomato paste, broth, bay leaf, rosemary and sage. Bring to a boil.
10. Cover Dutch oven tightly and place in oven. Cook for 4 hours, turning the meat every 30 minutes. If liquid evaporates, add broth.
11. Remove pot from oven. 
12. Remove roast from the pot and tent with foil.
13. Discard bay leaf and rosemary. Taste sauce and add salt if necessary. If sauce is too watery, reduce over medium heat until desired consistency is reached.
14. Slice pot roast very thin, place slices over pappardelle and then dress with sauce. 

Wine pairing: Brunello di Montalcino