You’ll never guess what I found, accidentally, when I was raking out leaves by the sandbox here on our little patch of heaven. Morels! No kidding. There were 2 huge, beautiful edible fungi right near the  hill bordering the river. I actually kicked one, thinking it was a leaf. 

Well right away I abandoned raking and took to looking for more. After an  hour up & down the river bank, no luck, but finding those 2 morels made me smile all day. 

If I would have found enough, the morels would have taken the place of dried porcinis in the recipe I’m sharing today for stracotto. Instead I cooked them in a bit of butter and garlic and we ate them on toasted French bread.

OK so let’s talk about stracotto. An Italian version of pot roast, stracotto means overcooked, and that description fits. Chuck roast is slowly oven braised with onions, garlic, porcini mushrooms, thyme and rosemary. Red wine and beef broth make the liquid component. It’s a savory, delicious meal.

Now if you don’t have dried porcinis, dried shitakes or a mix of dried mushrooms work well. The slight difference may be in the flavor profile since porcinis add a real deep, umami element to the roast. 

As far as the wine, all I had was Pinot Noir which I consider a lighter, dry wine. Go for whatever you like in the dry red family.

I served this with a side of instant polenta (find that recipe on aboueating.com). The mild taste of the polenta complimented the savoriness of the meat just right.

Stracotto with porcini mushrooms

No need to soak mushrooms ahead of time.

Ingredients

3-4 pounds chuck roast, trimmed just a bit (I used 3#)

Salt and pepper

Olive oil

2 large yellow or white onions, not sweet onions – about 4 cups

6 nice cloves garlic, minced – 2 tablespoons

1 cup dry red wine 

2 cups beef broth and more if necessary

1/2 oz or so dried porcini mushrooms 

2 sprigs thyme, 3” each

1 sprig rosemary, 3-4”

Instructions

Preheat oven to 325.

Season beef with salt and pepper.

Heat a bit of oil in a dutch oven and brown meat all over. Set aside.

Add a little more oil to pan if necessary, then add onions and saute until they start to turn translucent. Stir in garlic and cook a couple of minutes. 

Add wine and bring to a boil.

Stir in broth, mushrooms, thyme and rosemary. 

Put beef on top, bring all to a gentle boil, then cover and cook in oven until met is very tender, turning once halfway through cooking.  Mine took about 3 hours.

Lift beef out and set aside.

Spoon away excess fat and remove herb stems.

Puree pan juices and vegetables until smooth. Add a bit more broth if you like. 

Cut beef into thick chunks and serve with gravy alongside polenta, noodles or potatoes.

Tip:

Sub dried herbs for fresh: 1  teaspoon thyme and 2 teaspoons rosemary. Crush rosemary before using.