Katie Lee Biegel’s peposo recipe is a simple Tuscan beef stew made with just four main ingredients.The stew uses beef, red wine, garlic and a “boatload” of freshly ground pepper.Serve this hearty stew with polenta, mashed potatoes or some crusty bread.
If you don’t follow Katie Lee Biegel on social media, you’re missing out. The Food Network star often shares photos from many of her adventures in the kitchen—and last summer, she shared glimpses of an adventure abroad. While fans only got a small glimpse of the meals she and her husband enjoyed on holiday last summer in Italy, she recently shared a recipe for a stew she had in Florence. The dish looks absolutely mouthwatering and, as she says, “perfect for a cold night.”
It also looks incredibly simple to make. That’s because it only requires four ingredients, and the chef herself walked viewers through each step—peppering in a few pro tips along the way.
Speaking of pepper, that’s the star of this dish—alongside the beef, of course. The stew is called peposo, and it hails from the Tuscany region, specifically the Chiana Valley. The area is perhaps most well-known for its namesake red wine and roughly 3,000-year-old cattle breed.
Biegel’s version calls for beef, pepper, garlic, an “inexpensive” red wine, salt and flour. Because salt is a staple pantry item most people keep on hand, and flour is optional, making peposo really only requires you to shop for four items. While a budget-friendly bottle of Chianti is easy to source in the U.S., finding a cut of Chianini beef may prove more difficult (and more expensive), so Biegel opts for cubed chuck roast.
To make it, you’ll want to do like the chef and brown the beef in olive oil in a Dutch oven over medium heat—instead of high—to avoid burning the brown bits that add big flavor to the finished result. She sprinkles her meat with flour before it goes in to create a nice crust and help thicken the broth. She also says leaving a little space between each piece of meat is the secret to a good sear, as it prevents steam from accumulating.
Once the beef is browned, remove it from the pan and allow it to rest on a rimmed baking tray while you move onto the next step: grinding, as Beigel says, “a boatload of pepper,” and frying it for about 30 seconds in the same pot to achieve stronger, more flavorful results. She notes that pre-ground black pepper won’t taste the same and will probably be too strong, so it’s a good time to grab your peppercorn grinder.
The last few steps are simply adding whole garlic cloves to the pan, deglazing with wine, then returning the beef and its juices to the pot along with a touch of salt and enough red wine to cover the meat. You then bring it to a simmer, pop the lid on and slide it into the oven.
The most difficult part of this recipe, by far, is patiently waiting the two hours needed for the beef to transform into what Biegel describes as a “luscious and tender” bite.
She serves her stew over a creamy bowl of polenta, but we did a little digging and discovered that it’s also traditionally enjoyed with a bit of crusty bread—the perfect thing to soak up the flavorful broth. We think it would also taste amazing served over buttery mashed potatoes or even wide ribbons of pappardelle pasta. Either way, we know exactly what beef stew we’re trying this winter—maybe with some Creamy Polenta.
Dining and Cooking