Sofrito

Thin veal slices in a pale garlic and vinegar sauce with no tomato in it at all, which is what makes it this rather than a stew.

Beef, Veal. Not vegetarian — contains beef, veal.

Ingredients

• 800 g veal or beef topside, in 1 cm slices
• plain flour, for dredging
• 8 cloves garlic, finely chopped
• 1 large bunch flat parsley, chopped
• 120 ml white wine vinegar
• 150 ml dry white wine
• 100 ml olive oil
• 300 ml hot water or light stock
• salt and white pepper

Method

1. THERE IS NO TOMATO IN THIS AND THAT IS THE POINT. The sauce stays pale, sharp and green with parsley, and it is the only braise on this site that does. Add a spoonful of purée out of habit and it becomes an ordinary brown stew that tastes of nothing in particular.
2. THE VINEGAR IS NOT COOKED AWAY COMPLETELY. In most braises the acid is bubbled off to nothing in the first minute; here a good deal of it is meant to survive, which is why it goes in late and why the lid stays ON for most of the cooking. The finished sauce should make you blink.
3. THE GARLIC AND PARSLEY GO IN TWICE, half at the start and half at the very end off the heat. The first lot softens into the sauce; the second stays raw and sharp, and the difference between the two is most of what this tastes of.
4. Veal slices beaten thin between two sheets of film with a rolling pin, to about 5 mm.
5. Seasoned and dredged in flour, shaken well so only a thin coat stays. The flour is the only thickener here.
6. Oil in a wide heavy pan over a medium-high heat. Slices fried in batches, 1 minute a side, just to colour the flour. Lifted out.
7. Heat to LOW. Half the garlic into the oil, 1 minute only, without colouring -- browned garlic turns this bitter.
8. Half the parsley in, then the wine, bubbled 1 minute.
9. THE VINEGAR IN NOW, and the hot water, and brought to a bare simmer.
10. Veal returned in a single overlapping layer with any juices. LID ON, lowest heat, 45 minutes. The lid is what keeps the vinegar in the pan.
11. Lid off for the last 10 minutes if the sauce is thin; it should coat a spoon lightly.
12. OFF THE HEAT, the remaining garlic and parsley stirred through raw, and left 5 minutes before serving.
13. Eaten with mashed potato or plain rice, which the sauce needs.

Our own recipe. This one was written for this site rather than taken from anywhere, so there is no source to point you at. The quantities and the order of the steps are choices, not the only way to do it.

Filed under Greece · All recipes