Veal & Pork Stew with Artichokes

This Easy Veal and Pork Stew with Artichokes is a tasty second course, very popular in Italian cuisine. Perfect for Sunday lunch or some family occasion.

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Today’s recipe is a reinterpretation of the Italian stew which is dipped with tomato sauce. It is a typical autumn and winter dish, much loved in all places in Italy.

To prepare it to perfection, however, you have to be careful not to make some mistakes, I’ll tell you which ones!

How to choose the most suitable meat to make the stew

Generally, the stew preparation requires slow and prolonged cooking. For these reasons, it is optimal to choose a meat of excellent quality and that contains, at least in part, a good dose of fat and nerves. This is because with slow cooking the fat turns into juiciness and gives an appetizing texture. But be careful if the nerves were too many, you would find yourself with the stringy meat.

In today’s recipe, I used half veal and pork, mainly because I don’t like beef too much.

On the other hand, Veal has very soft meat, but which also has little taste, whilst Pork, which’s always white and fairly lean, has a much tastier flavor.

To make a great stew, you can nevertheless opt for the Beef which has very tasty meat, but which has the disadvantage of difficult and long cooking to make it soft. Furthermore, if you are unfamiliar with cooking meat, there is a high risk of spoiling the dish. Therefore, keep in mind that, to avoid having hard meat on the table, you will have to cook the beef at no more than 75 C° – 167 F° (use a meat thermometer) for no less than two hours.

Another alternative, and typical dish of Liguria, is to use Lamb to make the stew.
In this case, I suggest you opt for the shoulder or leg of the boneless lamb. And, in the latter case, then, take care to let the meat marinate for a few hours in water and apple cider vinegar before starting cooking!

Something about Artichokes

We are in the middle of the artichoke season!

I love this vegetable and can’t wait to prepare tasty recipes with this ingredient.
Anyhow, artichokes are often considered a “blessing and curse” for those who cook because their cleaning is considered difficult.
We have therefore created a video guide to find out how to clean artichokes quickly and easily.

Check it out how easy can be to clean artichokes with this method: How to Clean Artichokes.

To make a great Veal and Pork Stew, choose the long and violet artichokes.

Few extra tips for a tender Veal and Pork Stew

To obtain a soft stew, cut your meat into small pieces following the ribs, in this way it will cook faster and better.

For a more rustic and familiar result, prepare the stew in a cast-iron pot or crockpot.

Before starting the actual cooking, let the meat brown in oil to obtain the Maillard Reaction. In this way, you will preserve all the juices of the meat.

Lastly, if the gravy is too liquid, dissolve a little flour or cornstarch in a little water, add it to the pot, stir and replace the lid.

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