Beef Roast Braised with Onions
Adapted from Marcella Hazan’s Essentials of Classic Italian Cooking
Serves 4-6
Ingredients
1 pound bacon
4 medium onions sliced very, very thin
1 brisket
Salt
5 cloves
Black pepper
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 325°.
- Cut the bacon into narrow strips about ½ inch wide. Use half the strips to lard the meat with a larding needle, or by slicing it with the grain using your french blade then sliding the bacon down the french blade using a chop stick. Remove the knife and the chopstick and the bacon should stay right there.
- Insert the cloves at random into any 5 of the places where the pancetta was inserted.
- Choose a heavy-bottomed pot just large enough to accommodate the roast snugly. Spread the sliced onion on the bottom of the pot, over it distribute the remaining strips of pancetta or salt pork, then put in the meat. Season liberally with salt and pepper, and cover tightly. If the lid does not provide a tight fit, place a sheet of aluminum foil between it and the pot. Put on the uppermost rack of the preheated oven.
- Cook for about 3½ hours, until the meat feels very tender when prodded with a fork. Turn the roast after the first 30 minutes, and every 30 to 40 minutes thereafter. You will find that the color of the meat is dull and un- lovely at first, but as it finishes cooking and the onions become colored a dark brown it develops a rich, dark patina.
- When done, slice the meat and arrange the slices on a warm platter. Pour the contents of the pan and the juices left on the cutting board over the meat, and serve at once.
- OPTIONAL: I didn’t try this, but I don’t see why you couldn’t do this in your instant pot.
