Friuli Style Braised Beef Cheeks

Family Meal, Fit for Company, Great Leftovers

SERVES: 4

Leave it to the Italians to make the most of these truly delicious morsels. Beef cheeks, when cooked long and slow, transform from tough to beautifully flavored and unctuously silky meat. That’s because the abundant collagen in this heavily used muscle turns into gelatin, giving the meat great texture. Other tough cuts, such as shank and neck, will do, but they are not quite as tender as cheeks.

The idea for this recipe came from several trips to Friuli, a region of Italy that borders Austria and Slovenia. The paprika and juniper show the influence of the neighboring Austro-Hungarian region. Speck is a smoked form of prosciutto popular in Friuli and other areas of Italy bordering Austria. If you can’t find it, use Westphalian ham, the German smoked ham, or a lean smoky bacon.

INGREDIENTS:

• 3 tablespoons all-purpose flour
• Salt and freshly ground black pepper
• 1 teaspoon ground sage
• 1 tablespoon sweet Hungarian paprika
• 4 beef cheeks (about 4 pounds), trimmed
• 5 tablespoons olive oil
• 1 cup dry white wine
• ¼ pound speck (see Sources), Westphalian ham, or lean smoky bacon, chopped
• 1 cup thinly sliced shallots
• ⅓ cup chopped celery
• ¼ cup chopped peeled carrot
• 2 tablespoons minced garlic
• ½ ounce sun-dried tomatoes (not oil-packed), soaked in hot water for 30 minutes, drained, and sliced
• ½ cup grappa, kirsch, or brandy
• 2 cups homemade beef stock or canned low-sodium chicken broth, plus more if needed
• ¼ cup Dijon mustard
• 8 juniper berries, crushed
• 4 teaspoons chopped fresh rosemary
• 1 tablespoon chopped fresh sage

INSTRUCTIONS:

1. Preheat the oven to 325°F.
2. Combine the flour, 1 tablespoon salt, 2 teaspoons pepper, the ground sage, and paprika in a shallow bowl. Dredge the cheeks in the mixture, shaking off any excess flour.
3. Heat a large Dutch oven over medium-high heat. Add 3 tablespoons of the oil and brown the cheeks on all sides, about 7 minutes. (You may need to do this in batches.) Remove the cheeks from the pot and set aside. Pour off all but 2 tablespoons of the fat. Pour in the white wine, stir, and bring to a boil, scraping up any browned bits from the bottom of the pot. Pour the wine into a bowl and reserve.
4. Reduce the heat to medium. Add the remaining 2 tablespoons oil and the speck to the pot and cook for 1 to 2 minutes. Add the shallots, celery, carrot, garlic, and sun-dried tomatoes and cook, stirring, for about 5 minutes. Add the grappa and stock and stir, scraping up any browned bits from the bottom of the pot. Stir in the reserved wine, mustard, juniper berries, 2 teaspoons of the rosemary, and the fresh sage and return the cheeks to the pot. Bring to a boil, cover, and place in the oven. Cook for 2 to 3 hours, or until the beef is very tender, turning over the cheeks every hour and adding more stock if needed.
5. Remove the pot from the oven and degrease the sauce. If it’s too thin, remove the cheeks from the sauce and bring to a boil to concentrate the flavors.
6. Stir in the remaining 2 teaspoons rosemary and season the sauce with salt and pepper. Cut the meat into large chunks, and rewarm if necessary. Serve with plenty of sauce.

ALTERNATIVE CUTS:

• Beef shank, short ribs, brisket, or any pot roast cut from the chuck. These cuts will take less time to cook than beef cheeks.

COOK’S NOTES:

• With this dish, unlike most braised dishes, it’s best to degrease the sauce while it’s still hot. So much gelatin is released from the cheeks during cooking that the fat will emulsify into the sauce as it cools.
• Serve with oven-roasted root vegetables, such as parsnips, carrots, rutabaga, and boiling onions. This is also nice with a celery root puree, or you can simply serve the cheeks over mashed potatoes.

LEFTOVERS:

• Dice any leftover cheek meat and toss with fresh pasta, or combine with cooked penne, sprinkle with a diced smoked