Beef & Veal-based Roasts

Beef filet, roasted and served with zesty apples. Quite tasty!

Beef fillet is one of the most elegant cuts there is, ideally suited to an elegant meal, and while once can simply cook it and be very happy with it, special occasions beg something more. For example, baking it with paté and puff pastry. If you start with store-bought puff pastry this is also much easier than one might think to do.

This is an elegant winter roast from Piemonte, and will offer a very nice change of pace.

A Calabrian recipe for roast veal with tomatoes and herbs.

An old, and elegant recipe for roast veal seasoned with a deft sweet touch, and served on a bed of beans.

Piemonte is famed for its beef, and as a result there are a great many Piemontese recipes for roasted or braised beef; though brasato al Barolo is perhaps the best known, this is also quite nice.

About the Chianina breed and its introduction to the US -- general information, nicely done, with pretty photos.

A classic, very simple technique for pot roasting, which is perfect for making roast beef on the stove.

Roasting a veal shank is quite easy, and virtually foolproof; you'll be able to prepare a tasty meal people will line up to enjoy, and only need to check on its progress every now and then. The recipe was prepared for me by Guido Stucchi Prinetti, who got it from his Mom, Lorenza De'Medici

Ossobuco, veal or beef shank, is an extraordinarily sensual meat, with a texture that verges on the libidinous. It does take a while to cook, but if you make this recipe, you won't have to watch it at all for most of the time. In short, a perfect dish for when you're busy doing other things!

Kumquats are a relatively new thing in Italy, and they work nicely with meats. Especially veal, whose sweetness nicely balances the tartness of kumquats in this tasty roast veal.

Artusi gives a number of recipes for making an arrosto morto in his Scienza in Cucina e L’Arte di Mangiar Bene; most were alas sacrificed during the revision process to bring the manuscript of The Art of Eating Well down to a manageable size. This is especially well suited to extremely lean meats that will benefit from the insertion of lardoons,...

Ligurian Spit-Roasted Veal, or Vitello Allo Spiedo: A piece of meat done on a spit can be deceptive and surprising: all sorts of things can happen during the roasting. In Liguria, for example, it's basted with lemon juice.

Filetto, what the French call filet mignon, is one of the most voluptuous of all beef cuts, and because its popularity there are a great many recipes for it. Here is a zesty Italian way of preparing filet mignon.

Filetto, what the French call filet mignon, is one of the most voluptuous of all beef cuts, and because its popularity there are a great many recipes for it. Here is a zesty Italian way of preparing filet mignon.

Erica de Mane's interpretation of Manducatis pork chops and peppers; they use red Italian frying peppers while she prefers bell peppers.

Artusi gives a number of recipes for making an arrosto morto in his Scienza in Cucina e L’Arte di Mangiar Bene; most were alas sacrificed during the revision process to bring the manuscript of The Art of Eating Well down to a manageable size. This pot roast with rosemary and garlic is especially well suited to flavorful cuts of meat.

Piemonte's Langhe are best known for their superb red wines, but the region also has some of the finest stands of hazelnut trees in the world. Though this recipe calls for beef, you could use other meats too, including rabbit.

Roast Beef with Pomegranate Sauce, or Roast Beef alla Melagrana: Roast beef takes very well to sauce, and the rich ruby of the sauce here will be quite festive.

Roast Beef with Sliced Onions, or Arrosto Con Cipolle Filanti: This will be quite tasty, and elegant enough for company though you may not want to wait.

Roast beef and cheese is an old, old concept. And Taleggio? Taleggio is a creamy cheese with a white skin; one generally discards the rind, and what is inside is delicately flavored and creamy. If one had to substitute, one might use a firm Brie. But I like Taleggio better. And, it will work very well with roast beef, making for a novel cheese sauce.

Roast beef and cheese is an old, old concpet. And Taleggio? Taleggio is a creamy cheese with a white skin that originally came from the Val Taleggio, in the Alps above Bergamo (it is now made using the same techniques in Piemonte, Lombardia and the Veneto). The cheeses are square, about 2 inches (5 cm) thick and 12 by 12 in size, and one generally discards the rind; what is inside is delicately f…

Beef fillet is quite satisfying, and little can be nicer on an elegant occasion. While some like to serve it as is, the bitterness of arugola is a very pleasant addition.

This isn't a roast in the traditional dry heat sense, but rather an arrosto morto, in other words a pot roast, and to be frank the recipe calls for more liquid than many do. However, it also calls for dried mushrooms, and they contribute considerably to thickening the sauce.

Savory dishes cooked with fruit were considerably more common in the past than they are now in Italy, but they do offer a welcome, and rather voluptuous change of pace. This recipe calls for Burbank plums, but you could use others as well.

Roast Veal with Potatoes, Parmigiano and Truffles, Bologna Style: Bologna is often referred to as La Grassa, (the rich), a reference to the cuisine, which is one of Italy's most elegant. And fun too; elsewhere in Emilia they make stuffed pasta and call them cappelletti, little hats. In Bologna, on the other hand, they add a twist as they shape the pasta, call them tortellini, and attribute them to a one-eyed artist who was inspired by a vision of Venus's navel. Enough said.

Bue alla Moda and Bue Brasato, two tasty pot roasts.