Corfu Recipes - Pasitsada

This page gives you the opportunity to re-create some of your favourite Corfiot taverna recipes at home. This time Beef Pastisada - a favourite Sunday lunchtime meal in Corfu. (This dish is also made with chicken or cockerel.)

Ingredients - 3-4 cloves garlic, peeled and finely sliced. 20 gr. butter. 4-5 onions, finely sliced. Half teaspoon ground cinnamon. Quarter teaspoon cloves. 2 tablespoons tomato puree, diluted in a little hot water. Salt and black pepper. 3 tablespoons red wine vinegar. 1.75 kg piece of top rump, or rolled brisket. 4 tablespoons olive oil. 500 gr. spaghetti.

Instructions - In a small bowl, mix together the garlic, cinnamon, cloves, salt and pepper. Make frequent deep slits around the meat and fill them with some of the garlic mixture, pressing it down inside the meat until it is all used up. Heat the oil and butter in a large ovenproof casserole and seal the meat until lightly brown all over. Take out the meat, add the onions and stir until they start to colour. Put the meat back into the saucepan and add enough hot water to come just below its top surface; then add the tomato puree and salt and pepper. Cover and cook slowly, turning the meat over frequently and stirring the onions to prevent them sticking, until the meat is tender - about one and a half hours. Alternatively, cook in a pre-heated oven, at 170 degrees Centigrade for 2 hours, turning the meat and the onions occasionally. When the meat is tender, put the dish on the hob, slowly pour the vinegar over the meat and let it bubble uncovered for 5 minutes, guarding against the onions sticking. By then, there should be a deliciously reduced sauce, smooth and sweet with the melted onions. If not, take out the meat and cook the sauce, uncovered, rapidly until it is reduced. Discard the string, slice the meat and put it back into the sauce. Cook the spaghetti until al dente. Serve immediately with the sauce over the pasta and the meat on the side.

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