Dalmatian Pot Roast "pasticada"

Submitted by LikesItHot

"A traditional slow cooked beef roast from the sunny southern Dalmatian coast in Croatia, marinated in wine and herbs and cooked in a mouth watering plum sauce!"

 

• Ready In: 4hrs
• Ingredients: 13
• Serves: 8-10

ingredients

• 1 kg beef, top round
• 750 ml red wine (1 standard size 750 ml/25oz bottle)
• 1 cup prosek dessert wine
• 1 (8 ounce) can tomato paste
• 80 g dried plums or 80 g prunes, without pits
• 2 tablespoons olive oil
• 1 bay leaf
• 3 -4 cloves
• salt and pepper, to taste
• 3 tablespoons of cut rosemary
• 4 garlic cloves, sliced into thin sticks
• 3 onions, sliced
• 3 -4 large carrots

directions

1. In a large pot or crock pot/slow cooker, marinate the beef, in one piece, overnight (or up to two days, depending on your tastes!) in 1 bottle of red wine. Add onions and rosemary.
2. Remove the beef, and every inch cut a small hole and insert one or two of the garlic "sticks", around the whole piece of beef. Save the marinade and put on the stove on medium heat. This will now be made into your sauce.
3. Brown the beef on all sides in a pan with your olive oil, on medium-high heat.
4. While browning the beef add the can of tomato paste to the marinade and mix well. As the marinade starts to boil, return the beef to the sauce and add the carrots. Boil for 15 minutes, stirring often.
5. Lower the heat to a simmer and add the remaining ingredients. Slow cook until the meat softens, about 3 hours. Stir occaisionally and add water as needed or if needed, to keep the meat covered and moist.
6. When the meat is very tender and the sauce has thickened, your pasticada is ready! Serve in slices, topped with the sauce, with gnocchi or mashed potatoes. Enjoy!

Reviews

[ZbGb2000]

The meat is soooo tender, and the sauce so flavorful. My whole family enjoyed this, and despite the hard work I will be making this again!

 

[KateL]

What a hearty and delicious roast -- it reminded me of Julia Child's beef burgundy (one of my all-time favorites) without the myriad steps. The flavors are somewhat different due to the fruit, but the wine is prominent. This recipe requires a sizeable commitment to time, but the actual work is minimal. It would help a lot if the onions and rosemary were moved to after the red wine ingredient, and the garlic cloves after them, as I had to double-check that I was including all ingredients at the right time. I used a venison roast, which came out perfectly. I cooked the pot roast the night before, and put the amount we planned to eat in a Corning casserole dish to reheat 30 minutes at 250 F; that gentle heating brought the temperature up without overcooking the meat. I served over extra wide egg noodles. It appears that Prosek dessert wine is no longer available; my internet search convinced me to use a Marsala Ambra, so I used the sweet red version. Note that we detected no gaminess in our venison, so this dish was a winner for us. I was happy that the dish did not taste overly fruity; the dried plums dissolved into the sauce. Thank you for sharing! Made for Spring 2013 Pick-A-Chef.