Red wine braised beef

The red wine braised beef is a meal perfect for special occasions: tasty, elegant and hearty, the red wine braised beef is a classic recipe that you can serve for Christmas day or when you want to impress your guests. The slow cooking in red wine with vegetables and herbs, makes the meat incredibly tender and tasty, that almost melts in your mouth!

The red wine braised beef is traditionally cooked in a common pot, while I have used a slow cooker for prolonged cooking and at low temperatures. The advantage of this method is that you can place the beef into the slow cooker and let it cook as long as necessary – much more than the common pot, because of the lower temperature – without turning or checking it.

If you cook the red wine braised beef into the slow cooker, a 1/4 of wine compared to traditional cooking will be enough, since you get a lot less evaporation with this method. In the recipe, you will still find the procedure with both cooking methods, notwithstanding the preliminary steps for preparing the red wine braised beef remain the same. You will need a full bodied wine for cooking the red wine braised beef: I used a good Chianti, but if it is for a special occasion I recommend using a finest wine, like the Barolo

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red wine braised beef traditional italian recipe and slow cooker crock pot recipe by tastycorner

Video recipe of the day

  • DifficultyEasy
  • CostMedium
  • Preparation time15 Minutes
  • Rest time6 Hours
  • Cooking time11 Hours
  • Serving4
  • Cooking methodSlow cooking
  • CuisineItalian
  • SeasonalityAutumn, Winter and Spring

Ingredients for the red wine braised beef

If you are gluten intolerant, always watch out for the cornstarch label with the word “gluten free”.

35 oz beef (blade clod; 1 kg)
3 cups red wine (750 ml; if you use the slowcooker, 1 cup/200ml will be enough)
1 carrot
1 onion
1 stick celery
1 cinnamon stick
2 cloves
1 sprig rosemary
1 clove garlic
1 teaspoon unsalted butter (10 g)
3 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
q.s. salt
q.s. pepper
1 teaspoon cornstarch (for thickening the sauce)

Tools

1 Bowl
1 Slow Cooker
or1 Pot large, thick-bottomed with lid
1 Pan non-stick

How to prepare the red wine braised beef

Qui trovi la versione italiana della ricetta Qui puoi leggere la ricetta in italiano!

Preliminary steps

To prepare the red wine braised beef, start from its marinade: cut the onion into small cubes. Peel the carrot and then cut it into pieces.

Stud the cloves in a large piece of carrot, so that you can find and remove them later. Clean the celery and cut it into pieces. Place the beef with vegetables in a large bowl, adding rosemary, peeled garlic, cinnamon and cloves too. Then add red wine.

marinate the beef in wine and in the aromas for braising

Cover the bowl and let it rest in the fridge for at least 6 hours, preferably overnight. Once the marinating time has elapsed, take out the beef and dry it with a sheet of paper towel.

Take out the vegetables and rosemary too, without throwing the marinade liquid, and keep them aside. Remove the cinnamon and cloves. Massage the beef on all sides with plenty of salt and pepper; tie it with kitchen string.

tie the beef with the kitchen string for the braised beef in red wine

Heat a bit of oil in a non-stick pan (if you use a slow cooker) or in a non-stick pot, and brown the beef on all sides. Then proceed following the recipe with the traditional pot or with the slow cooker as follows.

Cooking in a traditional pot (2 hours)

When the beef is well browned on all sides, add vegetables, a knob of butter and rosemary. Reduce with half of the marinade liquid and cover with a lid.

Cook the red wine braised beef on low heat for an hour, then turn it on the other side, add the rest of marinade and continue cooking for another hour.

When it is cooked, remove the beef from the heat and keep it warm. Then blend the gravy together with the vegetables or filter it and thicken with a teaspoon of cornflour.

Cooking in the slowcooker (5-11 hours)

If you prepare the red wine braised beef with the slow cooker proceed as indicated, up to the step of browning the meat in the non-stick pan. When the beef is well browned on all sides turn off the heat.

brown the beef in a non-stick pan before cooking in the crock-pot

Grease the slowcooker pan with a knob of butter and let it heat. Then add the vegetables of the marinade.

put the vegetables in the red wine braised beef slow cooker for the red wine braised beef

Lay the beef on the pan and moisten with the marinade liquid (if you use the slowcooker, 1 cup will be enough); put over the beef a rosemary sprig.

put the beef and th red wine in the crock-pot

Close the slowcooker and cook the red wine braised beef for 11 hours in slow mode or 5 hours in high mode. Once ready, drain the meat and keep it warm.

the red wine braised beef is ready

You can then decide to blend the gravy with all the vegetables or filter it through a strainer and thicken with a teaspoon of cornstarch on the stove as I did. Serve the red wine braised beef sprinkled with its sauce. It goes with side dish as mashed potatoes or baked potatoes.

en_v_ red wine braised beef traditional italian recipe and slow cooker crock pot recipe by tastycorner

Tips and variations

In Italy the red wine braised beef goes well with some polenta, for a complete meal full of richness and great flavour.
Regarding the aromatic herbs, you can choose the ones you prefer: in addition to rosemary, for example, you can use sage and bay. If you don’t like the taste of cinnamon, you can omit it.

Translation by Giacomo Meucci

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