Spezzatino

Spezzatino is an Italian dish that we saw on David Rocco Dolce Vita. We made this to go with our polenta... which happens to also be from David Rocco's Dolce Vita. What can we say, we like rustic Italian food.

Here's what you need:
4-5 lb roast (you can use beef, pork, veal, venison - whatever!)
4 carrots
4 celery ribs
1 large onion
4-5 baking potatoes
1 15 oz. can low sodium tomato sauce
1/4 cup red wine (we think we used a cabernet)
Kosher salt and black pepper

Here's what you do:
Slice the roast into about 1" cubes.

Place a large pan (or perhaps a enamel coated cast iron dutch oven would be better (You'll see why later)) over medium high heat and add a bit of olive oil to the bottom. Sear the meat. Season lightly with salt and pepper.

Meanwhile, chop your carrot, celery and onion.

You don't have to be precise about your chopping, because you're going to run it through the food processor.

Peel and chop your potatoes.

Your meat should be seared, so remove from the pan.

Add the veggies to the pan. Season lightly with salt and pepper.

Brown them for about 5 minutes.

Once your veggies are softened, pour the wine over them, and deglaze the bottom of the pan by scraping with a spatula. Season lightly with salt and pepper.

You're going to want to let this simmer for a few minutes. Once you can't smell the alcohol in the wine any longer, you're ready to move on.

Add the potatoes to the pan. Stir and season lightly with salt and pepper.

Now add the meat.

Next goes the rest of the wine.

And finally the tomato sauce.

Give everything a good stir. We had to be very, very careful with this step. As you can see, our pan probably wasn't quite big enough.

Bring this to a low boil.

Now, just reduce your heat to medium and cover for an hour and a half.

The meat tenderizes and the potatoes cook through, but aren't mushy. We think you're really going to enjoy this one.

Enjoy!