Rolled Beef and Pancetta Stew

Tastes like home

“In my family, Rolled Beef and Pancetta Stew, known to us simply as umido, isn’t just something we cook. It’s a piece of our history and something I’ve always felt was synonymous with home.“

Melanie Lionello says…

In my family, Rolled Beef and Pancetta Stew, known to us simply as umido, isn’t just something we cook. It’s a piece of our history and something I’ve always felt was synonymous with home. It takes a little time and patience to pull it together, but, once you sit down with a big plate of it on top of silky soft polenta, the effort is well and truly worth it.

Some of my earliest food memories are of watching my nonna make umido. She’d cut and lay out thin slices of beef, hammer them with a makeshift tenderiser and tuck in slices of pancetta, before finally rolling and securing them with toothpicks. Once I was old enough, I was allowed to help tenderise the beef and stick the toothpicks in. However, being a kid, bashing a hammer on the bench was pretty fun and meant that I was in no rush to finish the job. Now that I make it myself, I can’t say my speed has improved at all, but that’s okay – we want to make sure we have a very tender and delicious stew!

For me, food has always been a language of its own – a way to show love, to remind each other who we are and where we’ve come from. Recipes like this one weren’t written down; they were simple, passed along by watching, tasting and cooking time and time again. I make sure that the majority of my recipes follow that theme, so that you only need the very basics to make them – a chopping board, a knife, a pot, a wooden spoon…and a makeshift tenderiser!

What makes umido so special to me isn’t just the simple ingredients or the rolling or the slow cooking. It’s the sense of history simmering in the pot, the nostalgia and comfort the fragrance brings. The way one humble stew can make me feel cared for and connected to something bigger than myself that goes back generations. So, for all those reasons, umido tastes just like home to me.

Ingredients

Serves 4

Stew

60ml (1/4 cup) extra-virgin olive oil
1 onion, finely diced
2 celery stalks, including leaves, finely diced
2 carrots, peeled and finely diced
500g topside (top round) beef roast, thinly sliced
150g pancetta, thinly sliced
toothpicks
140ml dry white wine or chicken stock
400 g tinned pelati (whole) tomatoes
salt and freshly ground black pepper, to taste
500g (about 3-4) potatoes, peeled and cubed

Polenta

800ml water or full cream (whole) milk
1 teaspoon sea salt flakes
170g traditional coarse polenta
40g parmesan, grated

Method

Heat the olive oil in a large non-stick frying pan over medium–low heat. Add the onion, celery and carrot and cook until softened, about 15 minutes.

While these are cooking, make the spezzatini (rolled beef and pancetta). Tenderise each slice of beef by pounding it a couple of times with the rough side of a meat mallet, then place a slice or two of pancetta on top of each slice and roll up. Secure with a toothpick and repeat with the remaining beef and pancetta.

Pour the wine (or stock) into the pan with the vegetables and let it simmer for a couple of minutes, scraping up any browned bits from the bottom of the pot.

Add the tomatoes, breaking them up with a spoon. Season with salt and pepper and stir well to combine all the ingredients.

Add the spezzatini and potatoes to the pan. Place the lid on and cook over low heat for about 1 hour, stirring only once or twice, until the potatoes and beef are tender. Taste and adjust the seasoning if needed. If the sauce is too thick, you can add a splash of water or stock to thin it out.

For the polenta, bring water or milk to a gentle boil in a medium saucepan over medium-high heat. Stir in the salt. Reduce the heat to low and slowly add the polenta in a steady stream. Stir the water/milk and polenta slowly for the first 5 minutes, as the mixture thickens and the water/milk and polenta no longer separate from one another.

Reduce the heat to low and let the polenta cook, stirring every couple of minutes to prevent sticking, for 15-20 minutes until smooth and creamy. Add the parmesan and stir it through for 1 minute. If the polenta thickens too much, add a splash of warm water or milk to loosen it.

Taste and adjust the seasoning if needed, then serve hot, with the stew on top. Refrigerate the stew in an airtight container for up to 2 days or freeze for up to 3 months.

MELANIE LIONELLO’S EASY ITALIAN DINNERS FROM MY LITTLE KITCHEN IS OUT NOW THROUGH MURDOCH BOOKS.

Published in ed#761

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