Peposo (Peppery Tuscan Beef Stew)

Franksecondi piatti, Toscana44 Comments

Peposo (Tuscan Beef Stew)

This Tuscan beef stew has a long history. The story goes that it was invented by the furnace workers (fornaciai) who baked the terracotta tiles for the Brunelleschi’s famous Duomo in Florence. They mixed roughly cut up beef shank, salt, lots of black pepper and red wine—Chianti, of course—in terracotta pots and let it all bake slowly in a corner of their furnace until it was time to eat. The original slow cooker recipe?

The dish is still popular in Tuscany today, and the little town of Impruneta, a few kilometers south of Florence, is well-known for its annual sagra (festival) dedicated to the dish. These days, peposo is more likely than not to be made with tomato sauce, but being the traditionalist I prefer the original, pre-Columbian version.

In any event, once you put the ingredients together in a pot and pop them in the oven—and there’s no browning or soffritto to mess with this time—this tasty dish quite literally cooks itself. After all, those fornaciai had more important matters to attend to… just like you. But I warn you, the ambrosial aroma of peposo as it slowly bakes in the oven can be very distracting.

Ingredients

Serves 4-6 people

  • 1 kg (2 lbs) beef for stew
  • 1 head of garlic
  • 20g (3/4 oz) whole peppercorns
  • Salt, preferably roughly sea salt, to taste
  • 1 bottle red wine, preferably Chianti

Directions

Cut the beef into large chunks, along the natural muscle separations where possible.

Peposo (prep 1)

Lay the beef chunks into the bottom of a terracotta pot and insert the garlic cloves interspersed among the beef chunks here and there. Sprinkle the whole peppercorns and salt over everything.

Peposo (prep 2)

Pour over enough red wine to cover the beef.

Peposo (prep 3)

Cover the pot and place in a slow oven (160C/324F) for 4 hours or more, until the beef is falling apart tender and the red wine has reduced into a rich sauce. If the dish is still too liquid and you’re ready to eat, remove the cover, which will allow it to reduce more quickly. Although unconventional, just before serving you can also add a spoonful or two of potato starch mixed with an equal amount of water to give the sauce some liaison.

Notes

Most Italian recipes for Tuscan beef stew call for beef shank, which can be hard to find. My favorite cut for any sort of braised beef is chuck. You can also use, of course, those pre-cut ‘stewing beef’, although I’ve never quite figured out exactly what cut it is. If using chuck, you may want to trim off some of the excess fat, but leave some on for flavor. Although I haven’t tried it (but I will!) I bet that short ribs would be fabulous made this way.

Like many traditional recipes, there are multiple variations on the theme. As mentioned, the most common has got to be the use of tomatoes, either just a few or a lot (see the related articles listed below for some lovely examples). Some recipes call for ground pepper, which gives the dish a more pungent flavor than leaving the peppercorns whole, so I would use less of it, perhaps half as much by weight. Some recipes call for much less pepper than this anyway, something like 15 peppercorns for this amount of meat (although personally I’d never be patient enough to count them out!) And some recipes call for leaving the head of garlic whole, peeled only of the excess papery outside skin, and perhaps trimmed on top, nestled in the middle of the beef. Other recipes call for cloves left whole and unpeeled. Finally, you will also find recipes that call for a sprig of fresh rosemary or sage to go into the pot along with the rest.

The traditional cooking vessel for making this Tuscan beef stew is a covered terracotta pot. It does give the dish a special taste and, for me, it provides a real sense of connection with those original furnace workers. (What can I say, I’m a romantic at heart…) If you don’t have a terracotta pot, enameled cast iron works perfectly well. And, of course, in a pinch any oven-proof dish will do.

Peposo is traditionally served with slices of Tuscan bread, accompanied perhaps with beans or sautéed spinach. It goes equally well, to my mind, with mashed potatoes or polenta. The latter is not very Tuscan, perhaps, but very nice nonetheless.

Peposo (plated)

Peposo (Peppery Tuscan Beef Stew)

Rating: 51

Prep Time: 15 minutes

Cook Time: 4 hours

Yield: Serves 4-6

Peposo (Peppery Tuscan Beef Stew)

Ingredients

  • 1 kg (2 lbs) beef for stew
  • 1 head of garlic
  • 20g (3/4 oz) whole peppercorns
  • Salt, preferably roughly sea salt, to taste
  • 1 bottle red wine, preferably Chianti

Directions

  1. Cut the beef into large chunks, along the natural muscle separations where possible.
  2. Lay the beef chunks into the bottom of a terracotta pot and insert the garlic cloves interspersed among the beef chunks here and there. Sprinkle the whole peppercorns and salt over everything.
  3. Pour over enough red wine to cover the beef.
  4. Cover the pot and place in a slow oven (160C/324F) for 4 hours or more, until the beef is falling apart tender and the red wine has reduced into a rich sauce. If the dish is still too liquid and you're ready to eat, remove the cover, which will allow it to reduce more quickly. Although unconventional, just before serving you can also add a spoonful or two of potato starch mixed with an equal amount of water to give the sauce some liaison.
https://memoriediangelina.com/2013/03/03/peposo-peppery-tuscan-beef-stew/

44 Comments on “Peposo (Peppery Tuscan Beef Stew)”

  1. Good afternoon, Frank! I’m making Peposo with beef short ribs today. I’ll let you know how it turns out.

  2. Frank, the recipe I’ve always followed calls for 25g whole plus 15g coarsely ground peppercorns for 1k of beef; also 1 kg tomatoes but only 250ml red wine. I like peppery but this is super spiced so I’m going to give your recipe a try next time. And thank you for reminding me about Peposo. I usually serve it with bread and cannellini beans. Leftovers with pappardelle.

    1. Hope you like this version. It’s peppery but not overwhelmingly so. Love the idea of serving leftovers with pappardelle!

  3. Going to make it tomorrow with beef (bone in) shank (like for osso buco). Hope it works in a slow cooker. Should I add rosemary / sage / bay leafs? Friends coming over – would like to amaze them…

    1. I haven’t tried it myself, but I’m pretty sure this recipe will work well in a slow cooker. As for the herbs, some recipes include them, others don’t. So it’s up to you. Personally I think a sprig of fresh rosemary would add a nice taste. Hope things work out for you!

  4. I love your use of “pre-columbian” to describe Europe rather than solely the Americas. I do the same thing, especially in regard to gardening and cooking, which are inevitably linked.

    When we are in Sienna, I always insist on getting the “pre-columbian” version of panforte, senza chocolate. I enjoy my husband’s occasional dabbling in pre-columbian pastas with cinnamon and rosewater, or onion soup with cloves, etc.

    I suppose we could refer to those same recipes as pre-Ottoman too, but that’s another story.

    My husband (David from Cocoa & Lavender) teases me a bit for this interest. But then, I organize my garden by continent-of-origin, so its all rather tease-worthy.

    1. Hey Mark! Thanks for stopping by. Of course, the Columbian encounter was a two-way street. Hard to forget for anyone who enjoys Italian food and knows something of its history, since so many iconic Italian ingredients are actually from elsewhere. Organizing your garden by continent of origin… Wow, color me impressed! But I can understand David, too. It is seriously “geeky”. Now you could take it to another level and also reflect the origin in your garden design, too. Or maybe you already do that?

  5. Peposo Casalingo

    It’s said when Brunelleschi oversaw
    the construction I suppose you’d call it
    of that great dome designed to overawe
    patrons rivals Florentines with all its
    stunning startling breathtaking difference
    from anything that had been seen before
    the men who baked the tiles in furnaces
    devised a thing itself deserving awe:

    they put chopped marbled beef in chunky cuts
    into what terracotta pots they had
    with cloves of garlic salt chianti lots
    and lots and lots of peppercorns fierce mad
    with lids of domes of tiles in just such heat
    that when their work was finished they could eat.

    Feb 17, 2017

    Pittsburg steelworks:

    ‘Take, for instance, the legend of the “Pittsburgh rare” steak, which can still be spotted on menus around the country. As my grandfather told it, steelworkers would bring raw steaks to work in their lunch boxes, then slap them onto the side of the superheated blast furnace to get a quick char on the outside, leaving the interior virtually raw. I’d always assumed the story was apocryphal—surely this wasn’t a practical method of cooking. But Ron Baraff, of Rivers of Steel National Heritage Area—a historical society dedicated to preserving the city’s steel-industry heritage—sets me straight.’

  6. I made this last night for an Italian themed potluck I’m going to today. Seriously, this could not have been any easier (10 mins prep total????) and my house smelled amazing!! I snuck a little taste before popping in the fridge and oh my!! it was so delicious! Thank you for sharing this recipe!

  7. I was in Italy recently, I was very tired after a day of touring. My wife went with the tour group to dinner. I found a great little place to eat by the name “paperorosso ristorante”. The Florentine beef stew was delicious. Went back the next night with my wife and another couple. Three of us had the stew. Great place and stew. Going to try the recipe you have

  8. I cooked this last weekend. speachless. fantastic simple delicious recipe. and the main reason I love this blog, is not only the recipe itself, but the background and understanding what lies behind it. that is why your work on documenting this is simply priceless. thank you again for such a fantastic source of information. keep up your fantastic workd. thank you

  9. Has anyone tried this in a crockpot? Just wondering if it would work if set on high for 4 to 5 hours.

  10. I’ll be teaching a cooking class in the next 2 weeks and I think that this is just what I’m looking for! I’d been thinking about peposo, lately. It really is unique. I loved getting a big plate of it at Nerbone in the Mercato Centrale in Firenze. I especially like the history that goes along with it. Thanks, Frank!

  11. This is awesome!! Just made this with garlic and rosemary from my garden – I used sirloin tips and 1/2 cup thick tomatoe sauce in addition to the wine – this recipe is a keeper- thank you!

  12. I plan to double the recipe, using 4 lbs of beef. Do you recommend doubling the garlic and the whole peppercorns? I would appreciate your thoughts on this!

  13. Thank you. I made this dish fro dinner last night. My son loved it and I am filing the recipe under favorites. We had over hot boiled rice the Filipino way. I plan to try the variation with tomato paste next time.

  14. Oooooh, this sounds amazing. Had never heard of it before but am making this. I love how simple it is to make, although I admit that what I am doing is not quite as important as what the fornaciai were up to!

  15. OH MY Goodness! And I mean GOODNESS!!! I made this for dinner last and my husband LOVED it! I made it exactly like you said, using a terracotta pot, and served it atop a very thick slice of Tuscan bread and accompanied it with cannelini beans that I made with chicken stock, fresh sage sprig, and salt and pepper. This recipe is DEFINITELY a keeper! Mille grazie and I am looking forward to trying many more of your recipes!

  16. L’ho assaggiato a Firenze l’anno scorso ed era semplicemente divino: grazie per la ricetta!
    ma siamo sicuri che non ci va niente olio né burro? Mi sembra così strano! Forse il grasso della carne è sufficiente?
    Saluti da Roma 🙂

    1. Thanks, Vicki! Definitely worth a try—it is quite tasty. I guess those furnace workers didn’t have time for cutting up veggies…

      Actually, there are some modern versions with veggies (ie, the usual ‘trinity’ of onions, carrots and celery, plus some with tomatoes) but I think it’s always best to present the original first, then branch out into the variations…

  17. Frank – I never heard that about the furnace workers. One of the reasons I love your blog is the history you provide along with the recipes. And this recipe looks terrific.

We'd love to hear your questions and thoughts! And if you tried the recipe, we'd love to hear how it went!

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