White Wine Beef Stew With Pappardelle

It has been awhile since I last cooked some stew at home, and over the weekend, I decided to whip up the classic beef stew, with a slight twist.

Instead of using red wine, I decided to go for a lighter flavor base with a dry white wine as the base for this gorgeous dish, topped off with some beautiful pappardelle.

To begin, cook some pappardelle in boiling water that has been lightly tinged with some olive oil.

Pappardelle tends to cook rather quickly, so once the texture is soft, remove from water and run it under cold water and leave it to rest.

The beef stew do need about 2 hours to cook, so do prepare this in advance. To begin, brown some bacon in a pan to release the bacon flavors and remove.

Use the fat in the pan to further seal the beef cubes. Lightly coat the beef cubes with some flour. Once the beef has been browned, remove and set aside.

In a large pot, create a mirepoix of celery, onions and carrots. Cook for a few minutes until the vegetables sweat and the unmistakable aroma can be clearly distinguished.

Add in some chopped button mushrooms and stir for a couple of minutes. Add in half a bottle of dry white wine and another equal amount of beef stock. You can use chicken stock too, but for beef stew, the beef stock is more flavorsome and appropriate.

Bring the entire mixture to a boil and once it is so, let it simmer in low heat. Add in the bacon and beef and cover with a lid and let it slowly stew for about 2 hours.

The aroma will be intoxicating as the beef slowly cooks and the flavors are infused and released. Just before you are about to serve, add in some freshly crushed basil and pepper.

Add a knob of better to enhance the overall flavor and you can serve.

To serve, spoon enough beef cubes and the vegetables plus stock onto a plate and top it off with the cooked pappardelle.

To garnish, add a tiny amount of olive oil around the pasta and top it off with some freshly chopped parsley.

The beef should be so well cooked that the beef will just disintegrate at the slightest bite and the sauce from the stew will coat the flat pasta perfectly and this will make a very hearty and delicious meal.