Beef brasato with pasta and mint

I was supposed to have Italian food at one of my favorite restaurants on Sunday but didn't make reservations and would have to wait at least an hour...did I mention I don't like to wait to eat? Since then I have been craving good old Italian food so today I prepared beef brasato with pasta and mint for lunch.

Beef brasato with pasta and mint

Recipe from Food and Wine

Cooking time: 45 minutes

Yield: 8 servings

Ingredients

2 3/4 lb trimmed boneless beef shank, cut into 2 inch pieces

one 750 ml bottle dry red wine

15 mint sprigs, stems reserved

salt and freshly ground pepper

1/4 cup extra-virgin olive oil

one 35-ounce can peeled Italian tomatoes, crushed

1 lb fresh pappardelle

4 large garlic cloves, thinly sliced

freshly grated Parmigiano-Reggiano cheese, for serving

Directions

1. In a large resealable plastic bag, combine the beef with the wine, mint stems, and a generous pinch of salt and pepper. Seal the bag and refrigerate overnight.
2. Preheat the oven to 325 degrees F. Drain the beef, reserving the marinade; discard the mint stems. Pat the beef dry. In a large enameled cast-iron casserole, heat 2 tbsp of the olive oil. Add half of the meat to the casserole and cover over moderately high heat, turning occasionally, until well browned all over, about 12 minutes. Transfer the meat to a plate. Brown the remaining meat over moderate heat.
3. Return all of the meat to the casserole. Add the marinade and bring to a boil. Add the tomatoes, season with salt and pepper and bring to a boil. Cover and braise in the oven for about 2 hours and 15 minutes, until the meat is very tender.
4. Using a slotted spoon, transfer the meat to a plate and shred with 2 forks. Boil the braising liquid until reduced to 2 1/2 cups, about 20 minutes.
5. Meanwhile, in a large pot of salted boiling water, cook the pappardelle until al dente. Drain and return the pasta to the pot. Add the meat and the reduced braising liquid and cook over moderate heat, stirring, until the pasta is well coated and the brasato, about 2 minutes.
6. In a small skillet, heat the remaining 2 tbsp of olive oil until shimmering. Add the garlic and cook until lightly golden, about 1 minute. Add the mint leaves and cook for 10 seconds. Pour the garlic-mint oil over the pasta and toss. Serve in shallow bowls, passing the cheese alongside. 

Nutritional Analysis:
per serving: 338 calories, 4g fat (0.9g saturated, 1g polyunsaturated, 1.1g monounsaturated),  49g carbohydrates, 4.2g fiber, 11.2g protein

**Helpful tips and common mistakes

Beef shank is the leg portion of a steer; this means that this specific cut is much tougher than others since it is muscle. There is little to no fat and can be quite sinewy and dry. For these types of meat you want to slow cook the meat for long periods of time in moist heat such as braising. 

You may think the marinade requires a lot of red wine, which it does, but the flavor will be great later. I used merlot as my dry red wine.

Remember to pat dry your meat before searing in order to get that nice brown coloring.

Time to braise! Now the recipe calls for the meat to cook for 2 hours and 15 minutes but I had to cook mine closer to 3 hours. Even then the meat was not tender to the point where you can shred it with forks. Even when others had cooked beef shank for me for 8 hours, it was never to that fall apart point. The original recipe Food and Wine had adapted theirs to used a combination of oxtail and beef shank; oxtail does become very tender as opposed to beef shank and I will try using that cut instead next time. Even still, the beef was still tender, just not the extent the recipe states. 

Keep an eye on that garlic and mint infused oil! Depending on how hot your oil is, the garlic can brown much quicker than one minute. Also be careful when adding the mint because it will pop!

Sprinkle some fresh grated Parmesan on top and perfection! I truly enjoyed the deep flavors from the beef infused wine sauce and the bites of fried garlic. I used linguine instead of pappardelle but the type of noodle you use is no biggie. This dish is full of meat but doesn't feel heavy at all. Great for winter!