These are actually two separate things. First there is the Chicken Spezzatino, which is a chicken stew. Then there is the Bolognese sauce, which is really Ragὺ alla Bolognese. The Chicken Spezzatino would stand on its own, or you could just add a little plain tomato sauce if you didn't want to go through the trouble of making the ragὺ. You can make the Bolognese sauce on an earlier day, but since these recipes share so many ingredients, I prepared the stew as the ragὺ was finishing. Because of this, you'll see some overlap in the pictures, but I'll try to keep the recipes straight.
WARNING: This is a deeply flavored dish. If you don't like Chicken Livers, don't add them. Bolognese Sauce can live with or without them. I used Chicken stock for both parts of the meal because I employed the giblets, back and wing-tips of the Chicken I utilized for the stew. If you use boxed stock, you might prefer beef stock for the Bolognese Sauce.
I can't say I made the meal to fit the wine this time, but when I was wandering in my cellar trying to choose the perfect wine for this ultra-rich stew, I came upon some bottles of the 2005 Shardana. I've been waiting to crack a bottle for quite some time. This is an intense Sardinian red, just coming into its own and will mature nicely over the next several years. I'll have to sample it every couple of years to see how it develops, if I'm given the honor of lasting that long (me, not the wine). This wine comes from the Southern tip of Sardegna (see map) and is made of 85% Carignan and 15% Syrah. The Carignan is an old indigenous grape and some of the vines are actually pre-phylloxera. The name Shardana is, in fact, what the Phoenicians called Sardegna.
Ingredients:
Ragὺ alla Bolognese
3 oz. diced Pancetta
1 stick Celery, small dice
1 Onion (2 oz.), small dice
1 Carrot, small dice
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| Many of the ingredients for both |
1 clove Garlic, small dice
2 # Tomatoes (fresh & ripe or canned)
3 Tbs Tomato Paste
1 # ground Beef
4 oz. Chicken Livers
½ cup white wine
2 Tbs Flour
1 cup hot Chicken stock
½ tsp Thyme
Salt
Sugar* - see method
Chicken Spezzatino Bolognese
1 medium (4-6 lbs) Chicken
dredging flour
1 oz. Pancetta in small strips
1 stick Celery in ½" chunks
1 Carrot in ½" chunks
5 Mushrooms, ¼" slices
1 medium-hot Pepper
1 small Fennel (Anise) bulb
¼ cup black oil-cured Olives, diced
12 small Onions, whole or
1 sweet Onion chopped into big pieces
4 oz. pimentos
½ tsp Thyme
½ tsp Savory
1 Bay Leaf
½ cup white wine
1 cup hot Chicken stock
1 cup Ragὺ alla Bolognese
Method:
Here you'll have to be a little flexible if you don't do everything the same day. I'm going to describe how I put everything together.
1. Cut the Chicken into eight serving pieces. I divided it into leg/thighs, wings (minus tips), and breasts (boneless and cut in half crosswise).
2. For the stock, place the back, wing-tips and giblets in a pan and add some chopped onion, carrots and celery with ½ tsp Thyme and a Bay leaf. Add water to cover, bring to a boil, lower heat and simmer for a couple of hours. Strain and keep hot while you make everything else.
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| Preparing stock |
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| Stock cooking, deskinning tomatoes |
3. Prep all the veggies, noting different sizes for sauce vs. stew. I had some fresh little onions, just harvested, so I used those. Use what you have. Put tomatoes in boiling water for a couple of minutes, remove skins, cut crosswise and squeeze out as much juice and seeds as possible. Chop the tomatoes very small. If you are using canned tomatoes, remove from liquid and chop small. Add liquid to stock or use it to keep dishes moist as they cook. Remove tough outer part of Fennel bulb and cut into several big chunks. My mushrooms were various sizes, so I minced the big ones for the sauce and quartered the small ones for the stew. Slice the hot pepper into narrow rings.
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| Prepped for the Spezzatino |
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| Prepping for both |
4. Make the Ragὺ. Gently sauté minced onion, carrots and celery for about 2 minutes. Add the minced mushrooms and cook for about 2 more minutes. Add the diced pancetta and cook for another couple of minutes.
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| adding pancetta |
Raise the heat and add the ground Beef and cook until it is browned. Then add the minced Garlic and stir in. Now add the wine and let this get fully absorbed into the meat, about 5 minutes.
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| wine just added |
Stir in the Chicken Livers (if you are using them) and cook for about 3 more minutes. Add tomatoes, wait until they bubble.
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| tomatoes added |
Then sprinkle one teaspoon salt over tomatoes, lower heat and let simmer, covered, for about 20 minutes, or until tomatoes break down. After 20 minutes, taste (it will still be a bit uncivilized in flavor but you're just checking for salt). Add salt, if necessary, and if you used fresh tomatoes you will almost certainly have to add about 1 Tbs of Sugar*.
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| tomatoes breaking down |
Now stir in Tomato Paste. Sprinkle 2 Tbs Flour over the sauce and stir in. Cook for a few minutes. Stir in the Thyme. Blend in one cup of the hot Chicken stock, and let simmer, partially covered, for at least 2 hours.
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| ready to simmer |
Check about every half-hour and add a bit more stock if the sauce gets too thick.
5. Make the Spezzatino. You can start this when the sauce is half done. Blot the Chicken pieces dry and dredge in Flour. Heat oil in a Fricassee pan, or other large pan with sides. Add Pancetta strips and sauté for about 5 minutes.
Then add chicken pieces and brown well on both sides.
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| browning chicken |
Add the wine and cook until in almost all evaporates.
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| adding wine |
Then add a cup of the hot Chicken stock. When everything starts to come together, add carrots, celery and mushrooms.
Cover and let cook for 5 minutes. Now add hot peppers, fennel, small onions and olives. Add seasonings, lower heat and simmer, covered for about an hour, adding a little more stock, if necessary.
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| ready to simmer |
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| ragu added |
After the hour, carefully turn over each piece of chicken, sprinkle on 4 oz. of Pimentos, then spread a little Ragu on each piece of Chicken, cover and let cook for another half-hour.
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| Spezzatino finished |
6. Final assembly. You can use rice, polenta or couscous to accompany the Spezzatino, as they all work well with Bolognese sauce. I chose to throw a handful of fresh spinach ravioli, I happened to have in the refrigerator, into the still simmering stock. After about 5 minutes they were ready to strain out and add to the plate with a few pieces of chicken. Then I spread some sauce around everything and grated Parmigiano-Reggiano over the Spezzatino. For a salad, I used one leaf of fresh local lettuce covered with slices of a fresh peach just bought at our farmer's market. I added a few pieces of Ricotta Salata and drizzled over a little homemade poppyseed dressing.
6.
7. Here is the meal, along with some good bread and, of course, that Shardana, which was everything I had imagined it would be: rich and flavor-explosive but also soft and absent any cloying after-taste that I detest in a red wine.
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| Enjoy! |
