Tocco (Genoese Meat Sauce) is a traditional Italian recipe (from Genoa) for a sauce made by cooking beef slowly with carrot, onion, celery and dried porcini mushrooms in a white wine and beef stock base. The full recipe is presented here and I hope you enjoy this classic Italian version of: Genoese Meat Sauce (Tocco).
(click this button to prevent the screen from sleeping so Cook Mode is 'ON')
'Tocco' is the traditional Genoese meat sauce. Don’t call it ragù nor bolognese, it’s a different thing. It’s a sauce made by a big piece of beef (braising steak/chuck is the best part) very slowly cooked under stock for at least 3/4 hours. The more it cooks the more all its juices come out and mix with the flavours of the other ingredients: the veggies of the soffritto, dried porcini, tomato paste, fresh herbs and white wine. You put it on fire early in the morning and it will keep you company in the kitchen, softly simmering below the lid, until lunch.
Ingredients:
1 celery stick
1 small white onion, finely chopped
1 carrot, scraped and finely chopped
4 tbsp of extra-virgin olive oil
700g of beef (braising steak [chuck] if possible) in one piece
1 tbsp of dried porcini mushrooms
120ml of dry white wine
2 tbsp of tomato purée
1 tbsp of flour
2l of meat stock
some sage, bay laurel and rosemary leaves
Method:
Place the dried mushrooms in a small bowl, cover with plenty of warm water then set aside to soak.
Place a high-sided saucepan over medium heat (it needs to be tall enough to completely cover the meat). When hot, add four tablespoons of olive oil and use to fry the chopped vegetables for a couple of minutes.
Put the whole piece of meat inside the pan and cook, turning, until nicely browned on all sides. Add the vegetables and continue cooking for five minutes, taking care not to burn the vegetables.
In a separate pan, bring the 2l of meat stock to a boil. At this point squeeze the excess liquid from the soaked mushrooms and chop the mushrooms finely (reserve the soaking liquid).
When the meat has browned and the vegetables are starting to stick to the bottom of the pan, pour in the white wine. Stir , bring to a boil and let the alcohol evaporate away for 2 minutes.
At this point add the finely-chopped mushrooms, their soaking liquid, the tomato pure previously (diluted with 3 tbsp of water), and a tablespoon of flour (blended to a slurry with 3 tbsp water). Pour in enough of the hot stock to come 2/3 of the way up the sides of the meat. Finally add a sprig of rosemary, 3–4 sage leaves and a bay leaf or two.
Cover and cook over low heat for at least three hours, turning the meat from time to time to ensure all sides are submerged.
If the sauce is too liquid, after two and a half hours remove the lid and continue cooking over very low heat until the liquid reaches the desired consistency.
Adjust the seasoning with salt and freshly-ground pepper only at the end of cooking.
At this point cook your pasta (or ravioli). Drain the pasta then moisten with the tocco sauce and serve accompanied by the meat.
Any remaining tocco sauce can be stored in the refrigerator and used for other dishes like meatballs.
)
