Il Lesso (Boiled Meat)

At the end of the XIX century Artusi, one of the most important Italian cooking writer of the period, used to say “the good and healthy stock” was fading away together with good recipes like “lesso rifatto” (an old recipe in which boiled meat is pan fried with vegetables). 

Today we spend less time cooking and this is the reason why nobody prepares homemade stock anymore and also why we can find boiled meat just in restaurants offered as a "delicacy", while it used to be a really common meal for our grandparents. Re-discovering simple flavors can actually be useful to understand how we used to live in the past. We all know that cooking is culture and that it reflects the society. Today we judge everything first of all by its appearance only and this is also true also for dishes. In the postwar period, when Italian economy started growing, but we still had strong rural culture, a natural way of cooking was created and I hope we will not lose these traditions.

I know today it is not so easy to find high quality meat, but if you have the opportunity try to prepare it in combination with your own stock, you can serve the boiled meat with different kind of sauces or cook “lesso rifatto”.

MEAT STOCK

Ingredients for 2 liters stock  

gr. 500 beef

a piece of bone and one of beef leg
half chicken

1 onion

2 carrots

1 celery

2 tomatoes
2 gloves

Salt

In a saucepan put all the ingredients, 3 liters of water and let them boil for 2 hours. When the meat is soft, remove it and pass the liquid through a strainer. Put it in the fridge for a few hours, then take away the fat on the top.

STRACCIATELLA

Half scrambled egg

1 spoon of parmigian cheese

Salt

Nutmeg

Mix everything together and pour in the boiling stock

                           

FRASCARELLI

This recipe comes from Pienza, a place you want to visit when you come to visit us in Tuscany. 

Mix 2 eggs and 200 gr flour and make crumbs using your fingers. Cook it then for few minutes in boiling stock. Serve with topping of parmigiano cheese.

LESSO RIFATTO

Ingredients:

300 gr. cold boiled meat
3 onions
4 small tomatoes
olive oil, salt and pepper
flour

Mince the onion and let them brown with 4 spoons of olive oil, then put the boiled meat chopped and cover with a bit of flour. Add salt and pepper and stir for a few minutes. When the meat starts browning add the tomatoes. If it dries too much add some stock. Cook it for 10 minutes. If you want you can garnish it by adding anchovy and parsley on top.