This dish with a sauce of beef, tomato and spinach is from Campania according to my father's journal. Maybe he was just told that. He was taught to cook it by a woman in Gragnano in the 1960s where he stayed while making numerous tips to Pompeii and Herculaneum. I think his love of a local pasta, fusilli caserecci, was a reflection of how much these ancient Roman sites meant to him. He once told me that if he hadn't "been required to be more practical", he would have become a classicist. I don't doubt it for a minute: in our household we were reared on ancient Greek and Roman myths in lieu of fairy tales.
This is classic Italian regional cooking and there'll be little in here to challenge you. Like so much excellent Italian cooking, it relies on following a few basic rules and some patience. It's one of those dishes I find works in any season; lovely with a light salad in the summer, or with a side dish of steamed broccoli or cavolo nero dressed with a little extra virgin olive oil in colder weather.
I usually serve this sauce with fusilli caserecci, mainly for nostalgic reasons, but it works very well with many forms of pasta, particularly larger/thicker pastas such as paccheri, tagliatelle, conchiglioni or bucatini.
This recipe easily feeds three adults. Scale up or down as needed.
Less usual for this blog, I'm going to write about "resuscitating" the sauce. On this occasion, I cooked it a few days earlier because I planned to take it to Yorkshire. It freezes very well or keeps in a sealed container in the fridge for a good few days (and, yes, I very much believe "resting" it a few days enhances the flavour). A little "resuscitation" trick is included in this recipe.
Shopping list
The sauce
350g of cubed lean beef
Garlic, 4 cloves, peeled and finely chopped or crushed
1 large red bell pepper, cubed
1 large aubergine, cubed
1 large or 2 small brown or red onions, cubed
150g closed-cup mushrooms, sliced
1 vegetable stock cube or jelly, diluted in a cup of boiling water
1 400g tin peeled plum tomatoes
A small glass of white wine
Approx. 175g whole leaf spinach; fresh or frozen, very finely chopped
Salt and black pepper to taste
Extra virgin olive oil ( about 6 tbspns)
2 tspns dried oregano
A little parmigiana or Grana Padano cheese; grated or flaked (optional)
A handful of smoked bacon lardons or a bit of smoked sausage (if "resuscitating")
About 150g of sugo ( if "resuscitating") By now you obviously keep this as a staple in your fridge...
(Another) small glass of white wine (if resuscitating)
The salad
A selection of fresh green salad leaves of choice; bitter leaves are best
8 to 10 fresh cherry or small plum tomatoes, roughly sliced
⅓ of a fresh cucumber, thinly sliced
6 tbspns white wine vinegar
6 tbspns extra virgin olive oil
5 or 6 green asparagus, steamed and roughly sliced
salt and pepper to taste
Cooking Method
The salad
Prepare the salad first, in a salad bowl or individual bowls. To the salad leaves, add the rest of the ingredients. Store in the fridge until about 10 mins before taking to table
Dress before taking to table or allow diners to dress it themselves
The sauce and pasta
Heat the olive oil in a fairly deep pan with a lid. When the oil is hot but not smoking, add the garlic and onion, stirring to prevent sticking. When it softens but is not yet browned, add the cubed red bell pepper and sweat for a few minutes
Add the cubed beef, turning to ensure that it seals on all facets. Follow this with the cubed aubergine and, in turn, seal it too. Season with salt and pepper to taste (if desired) and add a little more oil if needed. Add a dash of the white wine and allow it to partly cook off
Add the mushrooms, stirring thoroughly, adding a little more white wine. Cover with the lid and allow to sweat for a few minutes so that the mushrooms create a little more liquid in the pan
Add the tinned tomatoes and their juice. Sprinkle in the oregano and stir the mixture while adding the remainder of the white wine. Add about half of the stock. Bring to the boil and allow to boil vigorously for about three minutes
Cover and reduce the heat so that the contents of the pot are barely simmering. Ideally cook this dish on a very low heat for about three hours. But, you can do a perfectly fine version in about an hour, simmering a little more vigorously on a low-to-medium heat if you don't have the time
Stir to prevent sticking about every 15 mins. As the contents cook and the liquid reduces, top up with additional stock. You don't want to reduce the liquid too quickly. Time it so that the consistency is exactly right when you wish to serve it
About 5 to 7 mins (the former for fresh, the later for frozen spinach) before you expect the sauce to be ready, add the spinach and stir in. Turn off the heat, cover and allow to rest
Plate onto your fusilli caserecci. NB, this is one of the thickest forms of pasta so it usually needs to boil longer than most pastas to be served al dente, whether fresh or dried. Check the packaging for details
'Resuscitating' the sauce
If cooked a few days earlier and stored in the fridge or frozen and defrosted, give it a little fresh "kick" rather than simply re-heating (though there's nothing wrong with that). Heat a little olive oil in a pan large enough for your sauce to later be added. Once the oil is hot, but not smoking, add you smoked bacon lardons and stir, ensuring they are sealed. Add about half of the white wine and allow to cook off
Add your sugo and cook on a high heat, stirring constantly. Add the remainder of the white wine, a bit at a time and continue stirring
Because the sugo is already pre-cooked and therefore reduced/thickened, you need wait no longer than until it has fully heated through. Add your beef and spinach sauce
Accompaniments & Variations
For veggie or vegan, simply leave out the beef and substitute with (smoked) tofu cubes or a larger quantity of aubergine at the same stage as in the recipe above. However, it's better if you cut the aubergine into into larger, chunkier cubes
Pairings
Yes, this another one where we need to call in Karel's singular expertise. But, in the absence of the erudite, it worked well with a reasonably soft Douro Portuguese red.
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