{
  "slug": "brasato-al-barolo",
  "url": "https://nonnario.com/recipes/brasato-al-barolo/",
  "name": "Brasato al Barolo",
  "english": "Beef braised in Barolo wine",
  "aka": [
    "brasô",
    "brasato di bue al Barolo",
    "beef braised in Barolo"
  ],
  "summary": "Piedmont's great braise: a piece of beef marinated for 12 hours in a bottle of Barolo, then simmered slowly in it, in the Cuneo style.",
  "essentials": [
    "A single piece of beef, such as cappello del prete from the shoulder, marinated for 12 hours in a whole bottle of Barolo with vegetables, herbs and spices.",
    "Browned in butter and oil to a crust, then simmered, covered, in its own heated marinade for at least 2 hours, until tender.",
    "The sauce is the marinade itself: the vegetables blended into the wine and reduced until thick, poured over the sliced meat.",
    "Made with Barolo, the Nebbiolo wine of the Langhe: by tradition it is not replaced with a cheaper wine."
  ],
  "diet": [
    "gluten-free"
  ],
  "region": {
    "slug": "piemonte",
    "name": "Piemonte",
    "url": "https://nonnario.com/regions/piemonte/"
  },
  "place": "Barolo",
  "coords": [
    44.617,
    7.933
  ],
  "course": {
    "id": "secondi",
    "it": "Secondi",
    "en": "Main Courses"
  },
  "level": {
    "id": "tradition",
    "name": "Documented tradition",
    "it": "Tradizione documentata",
    "description": "A regional tradition documented in cookbooks and local practice, with no single official text.",
    "url": "https://nonnario.com/method/#level-tradition"
  },
  "status": "checked",
  "published": "2026-10-26",
  "checked": "2026-10-26",
  "cooked": null,
  "provenance": {
    "by": "Piedmontese tradition",
    "reference": "Compared across 11 sources, listed below; this page publishes the most widely recognised version.",
    "year": null
  },
  "sources": [
    {
      "label": "Accademia Italiana della Cucina: brasato di bue al Barolo all'uso di Cuneo, from its recipe collection (Italian)",
      "url": "https://www.accademiaitalianadellacucina.it/it/ricette/ricetta/brasato-di-bue-al-barolo"
    },
    {
      "label": "La Cucina Italiana: brasato al Barolo (Italian)",
      "url": "https://www.lacucinaitaliana.it/ricetta/secondi/brasato-al-barolo/"
    },
    {
      "label": "La Cucina Italiana: brasato, everything to know from the cut to the aromas, by Cristina Gambarini (Italian)",
      "url": "https://www.lacucinaitaliana.it/tutorial/i-consigli/come-preparare-un-brasato-perfetto/"
    },
    {
      "label": "Langhe.net: brasato al Barolo, Nonna Genia's recipe from Alba (Italian)",
      "url": "https://langhe.net/ricetta/brasato-al-barolo-2/"
    },
    {
      "label": "Giallo Zafferano: brasato al Barolo (Italian)",
      "url": "https://ricette.giallozafferano.it/Brasato-al-Barolo.html"
    },
    {
      "label": "Dissapore: brasato al Barolo (Italian)",
      "url": "https://www.dissapore.com/ricette/brasato-al-barolo/"
    },
    {
      "label": "Il Cucchiaio d'Argento: brasato al Barolo (Italian)",
      "url": "https://www.cucchiaio.it/ricetta/ricetta-brasato-barolo/"
    },
    {
      "label": "Consorzio di tutela Barolo Barbaresco Alba Langhe e Dogliani: Barolo DOCG (Italian)",
      "url": "https://www.langhevini.it/le-denominazioni-tutelate-dal-consorzio/barolo-docg/"
    },
    {
      "label": "Italia.it, Italy's tourism portal (Ministry of Tourism and ENIT): the Piedmontese Christmas menu (Italian)",
      "url": "https://www.italia.it/it/piemonte/cosa-fare/menu-natale-piemontese-ricette"
    },
    {
      "label": "Treccani, Vocabolario: brasato (Italian)",
      "url": "https://www.treccani.it/vocabolario/brasato/"
    },
    {
      "label": "University of Modena and Reggio Emilia, Lexi-Term glossary: beef clod (cappello del prete)",
      "url": "https://www.lexi-term.unimore.it/beef-clod/"
    }
  ],
  "story": [
    "Brasato, brasô in Piedmontese, is meat cooked slowly in a covered pot with little liquid. The word comes from brace, embers: the pot once sat on them in the hearth, with more heaped on its lid. The wine that suits it best is Barolo, the red made only from Nebbiolo grapes in eleven communes of the Langhe, a few kilometres south of Alba. Barolo took shape in the mid-nineteenth century, thanks to Cavour and to Giulia Colbert Falletti, the last Marchioness of Barolo, and earned the saying ‘the king of wines, the wine of kings’. Brasato al Barolo is a dish for the cold months, and one of the best-loved second courses of a Piedmontese Christmas.",
    "There is no official recipe. We compared eleven sources and publish the most widely recognised version. They agree on what makes the dish: a single piece of meat and a bottle of Barolo, with carrot, celery, onion, garlic, herbs and spices, browned and then cooked long and slowly in a covered pot, and served sliced under its sauce. Ours marinates the meat for twelve hours, simmers it for at least two hours in the hot marinade and blends the vegetables into the wine for the sauce. Some recipes call for ox; we use beef, as most do, and we marinate it in the fridge rather than in a cool place, which is safer. The recipe in Nonna Genia, Luciano De Giacomi and Beppe Lodi's book of Langa cooking, skips the marinade and browns the meat with its aromatics before the wine goes in: it is among the variants."
  ],
  "serves": 6,
  "minutes": {
    "handsOn": 73,
    "cooking": 135,
    "resting": 760,
    "days": 2
  },
  "plan": "Start the day before: about 20 minutes to set the meat in its marinade, then 12 hours in the fridge. On the day, allow 3¾–5¼ hours: half an hour for the meat to lose its chill, about 45 minutes to dry it, brown it and cook the vegetables with it, 2–3½ hours of simmering, and half an hour for the sauce while the meat rests.",
  "equipment": [
    "Deep bowl of glass, ceramic or stainless steel, just large enough for the meat, and cling film",
    "A small square of muslin and kitchen string",
    "Sieve and a second bowl",
    "Kitchen paper",
    "Heavy casserole with a lid, about 24 cm across",
    "Small saucepan, for heating the wine",
    "Carving fork and a sharp carving knife",
    "Immersion blender, or a food mill",
    "Ladle, wooden spoon and aluminium foil"
  ],
  "ingredients": [
    {
      "group": "For the marinade",
      "items": [
        {
          "quantity": 1,
          "unit": "kg",
          "item": "beef, in one piece",
          "note": "cappello del prete (the shoulder clod); vena is also used, and some recipes use ox",
          "text": "1 kg beef, in one piece (cappello del prete (the shoulder clod); vena is also used, and some recipes use ox)",
          "recipe": null
        },
        {
          "quantity": 750,
          "unit": "ml",
          "item": "Barolo DOCG",
          "note": "one bottle",
          "text": "750 ml Barolo DOCG (one bottle)",
          "recipe": null
        },
        {
          "quantity": 2,
          "unit": "pc",
          "item": "carrots",
          "note": null,
          "text": "2 carrots",
          "recipe": null
        },
        {
          "quantity": 2,
          "unit": "pc",
          "item": "celery sticks",
          "note": null,
          "text": "2 celery sticks",
          "recipe": null
        },
        {
          "quantity": 1,
          "unit": "pc",
          "item": "onion",
          "note": null,
          "text": "1 onion",
          "recipe": null
        },
        {
          "quantity": 1,
          "unit": "clove",
          "item": "garlic",
          "note": null,
          "text": "1 clove garlic",
          "recipe": null
        },
        {
          "quantity": 1,
          "unit": "pc",
          "item": "rosemary sprig",
          "note": null,
          "text": "1 rosemary sprig",
          "recipe": null
        },
        {
          "quantity": 2,
          "unit": "pc",
          "item": "bay leaves",
          "note": null,
          "text": "2 bay leaves",
          "recipe": null
        },
        {
          "quantity": 3,
          "unit": "pc",
          "item": "whole cloves",
          "note": null,
          "text": "3 whole cloves",
          "recipe": null
        },
        {
          "quantity": 4,
          "unit": "pc",
          "item": "black peppercorns",
          "note": null,
          "text": "4 black peppercorns",
          "recipe": null
        },
        {
          "quantity": 1,
          "unit": "pc",
          "item": "small piece of cinnamon stick",
          "note": "about 3 cm",
          "text": "1 small piece of cinnamon stick (about 3 cm)",
          "recipe": null
        }
      ]
    },
    {
      "group": "For the braise",
      "items": [
        {
          "quantity": 40,
          "unit": "g",
          "item": "butter",
          "note": null,
          "text": "40 g butter",
          "recipe": null
        },
        {
          "quantity": 3,
          "unit": "tbsp",
          "item": "olive oil",
          "note": "up to 4",
          "text": "3 tbsp olive oil (up to 4)",
          "recipe": null
        },
        {
          "quantity": null,
          "unit": null,
          "item": "fine salt",
          "note": null,
          "text": "fine salt",
          "recipe": null
        }
      ]
    }
  ],
  "method": [
    {
      "phase": "The day before: the marinade",
      "intro": null,
      "steps": [
        {
          "n": 1,
          "url": "https://nonnario.com/recipes/brasato-al-barolo/#step-1",
          "title": "Dry the meat",
          "text": "Pat the beef dry with kitchen paper, taking off any blood, and put it in a deep bowl just large enough to hold it.",
          "kind": "active",
          "minutes": 3,
          "celsius": null,
          "heat": null,
          "official": false,
          "check": null,
          "tips": [
            "A snug bowl lets one bottle of wine cover more of the meat."
          ]
        },
        {
          "n": 2,
          "url": "https://nonnario.com/recipes/brasato-al-barolo/#step-2",
          "title": "Cut the vegetables",
          "text": "Peel the carrots and the onion, trim the celery, and cut them all into cubes of about 2 cm. Peel the garlic and leave it whole. Put them in the bowl around the meat.",
          "kind": "active",
          "minutes": 10,
          "celsius": null,
          "heat": null,
          "official": false,
          "check": null,
          "tips": []
        },
        {
          "n": 3,
          "url": "https://nonnario.com/recipes/brasato-al-barolo/#step-3",
          "title": "Tie up the spices and herbs",
          "text": "Tie the cloves, the cinnamon and the peppercorns in the square of muslin. Tie the rosemary and the bay leaves together with string. Add both to the bowl.",
          "kind": "active",
          "minutes": 5,
          "celsius": null,
          "heat": null,
          "official": false,
          "check": null,
          "tips": [
            "They come out before the sauce is blended: tied up, they are easy to find."
          ]
        },
        {
          "n": 4,
          "url": "https://nonnario.com/recipes/brasato-al-barolo/#step-4",
          "title": "Pour in the Barolo and marinate",
          "text": "Pour the whole bottle of Barolo over the meat, cover the bowl with cling film and leave it in the fridge, at about 4 °C, for 12 hours.",
          "kind": "rest",
          "minutes": 720,
          "celsius": null,
          "heat": null,
          "official": false,
          "check": null,
          "tips": [
            "If the wine does not cover the meat, turn the meat once or twice while it marinates.",
            "Some recipes marinate it in a cool place; the fridge is safer. Do not go beyond 24 hours: after that, the marinade is best thrown away."
          ]
        }
      ]
    },
    {
      "phase": "On the day: browning",
      "intro": null,
      "steps": [
        {
          "n": 5,
          "url": "https://nonnario.com/recipes/brasato-al-barolo/#step-5",
          "title": "Take the meat out of the fridge",
          "text": "Take the bowl out of the fridge half an hour before you start cooking, so the meat loses its chill.",
          "kind": "rest",
          "minutes": 30,
          "celsius": null,
          "heat": null,
          "official": false,
          "check": null,
          "tips": []
        },
        {
          "n": 6,
          "url": "https://nonnario.com/recipes/brasato-al-barolo/#step-6",
          "title": "Drain and dry",
          "text": "Lift the meat onto a board and dry it gently but thoroughly with kitchen paper. Tip the rest of the marinade into a sieve set over a bowl: keep the wine, and keep the vegetables, the spice bag and the herbs aside.",
          "kind": "active",
          "minutes": 5,
          "celsius": null,
          "heat": null,
          "official": false,
          "check": "The surface of the meat is dry to the touch.",
          "tips": []
        },
        {
          "n": 7,
          "url": "https://nonnario.com/recipes/brasato-al-barolo/#step-7",
          "title": "Brown the meat",
          "text": "In the casserole, melt the butter with the oil. When the butter foams, put in the meat and leave it, without moving it, for about 5 minutes, until the underside has a brown crust. Turn it and brown every side the same way.",
          "kind": "active",
          "minutes": 20,
          "celsius": null,
          "heat": "medium-high",
          "official": false,
          "check": "A deep brown crust on every side, like a roast.",
          "tips": [
            "If the butter starts to blacken, lower the heat a little."
          ]
        },
        {
          "n": 8,
          "url": "https://nonnario.com/recipes/brasato-al-barolo/#step-8",
          "title": "Heat the wine",
          "text": "While the meat browns, bring the strained wine to a simmer in the saucepan and skim off the grey foam that rises.",
          "kind": "passive",
          "minutes": 5,
          "celsius": null,
          "heat": "medium",
          "official": false,
          "check": null,
          "tips": []
        },
        {
          "n": 9,
          "url": "https://nonnario.com/recipes/brasato-al-barolo/#step-9",
          "title": "Cook the vegetables with the meat",
          "text": "Add the drained vegetables, the spice bag and the herbs around the meat and cook them together for about 15 minutes, stirring the vegetables now and then. Season with a level teaspoon of fine salt.",
          "kind": "active",
          "minutes": 15,
          "celsius": null,
          "heat": "medium",
          "official": false,
          "check": "The vegetables have softened.",
          "tips": []
        },
        {
          "n": 10,
          "url": "https://nonnario.com/recipes/brasato-al-barolo/#step-10",
          "title": "Pour in the hot wine",
          "text": "Pour the hot wine over the meat and vegetables, bring it back to a simmer and cover the pot with its lid.",
          "kind": "active",
          "minutes": 5,
          "celsius": null,
          "heat": null,
          "official": false,
          "check": null,
          "tips": []
        }
      ]
    },
    {
      "phase": "The braise",
      "intro": null,
      "steps": [
        {
          "n": 11,
          "url": "https://nonnario.com/recipes/brasato-al-barolo/#step-11",
          "title": "Simmer, covered, until tender",
          "text": "Turn the heat down until the liquid barely simmers, with a few small bubbles breaking the surface, and cook covered for at least 2 hours. Turn the meat every 30 minutes or so. If the liquid drops below about 2 cm, add a ladle of hot water.",
          "kind": "passive",
          "minutes": [
            120,
            210
          ],
          "celsius": null,
          "heat": "low",
          "official": false,
          "check": "A carving fork slides into the thickest part and out again without resistance. If it does not, cover again and test every 20 minutes.",
          "tips": [
            "Keep it at a bare simmer: a hard boil tightens the meat.",
            "A piece of cappello del prete can take about 3½ hours; some cooks give theirs about 4 hours over the lowest heat."
          ]
        }
      ]
    },
    {
      "phase": "The sauce and the table",
      "intro": null,
      "steps": [
        {
          "n": 12,
          "url": "https://nonnario.com/recipes/brasato-al-barolo/#step-12",
          "title": "Rest the meat",
          "text": "Lift the meat onto a warm plate, cover it loosely with foil and let it rest while you make the sauce.",
          "kind": "rest",
          "minutes": 10,
          "celsius": null,
          "heat": null,
          "official": false,
          "check": null,
          "tips": []
        },
        {
          "n": 13,
          "url": "https://nonnario.com/recipes/brasato-al-barolo/#step-13",
          "title": "Blend the sauce",
          "text": "Take the spice bag and the herbs out of the pot. Off the heat, blend the vegetables into the wine with the immersion blender.",
          "kind": "active",
          "minutes": 5,
          "celsius": null,
          "heat": null,
          "official": false,
          "check": "Smooth, with no pieces of vegetable left.",
          "tips": []
        },
        {
          "n": 14,
          "url": "https://nonnario.com/recipes/brasato-al-barolo/#step-14",
          "title": "Reduce the sauce",
          "text": "Put the pot back on the heat, uncovered, and boil the sauce until it has reduced by about half and thickened. Taste it and adjust the salt, then let it boil for another minute or two.",
          "kind": "passive",
          "minutes": [
            10,
            15
          ],
          "celsius": null,
          "heat": "medium-high",
          "official": false,
          "check": "It coats the back of a spoon, and a line drawn through it with a finger stays clear.",
          "tips": []
        },
        {
          "n": 15,
          "url": "https://nonnario.com/recipes/brasato-al-barolo/#step-15",
          "title": "Slice and serve",
          "text": "Slice the meat across the grain with a sharp knife, about 1 cm thick, and lay the slices on a warm platter. Pour the hot sauce over them and serve at once.",
          "kind": "active",
          "minutes": 5,
          "celsius": null,
          "heat": null,
          "official": false,
          "check": null,
          "tips": [
            "Polenta or mashed potatoes are the usual companions.",
            "Some cooks slice the meat cold and heat the slices in the reduced sauce for 10 minutes over a brisk flame."
          ]
        }
      ]
    }
  ],
  "quick": [
    "Marinate the beef for 12 hours in the fridge in a bottle of Barolo, with carrots, celery, onion, garlic, rosemary and bay, and cloves, cinnamon and peppercorns tied in muslin.",
    "Drain it, keeping the wine, and dry it well; bring the wine to a simmer.",
    "Brown the meat in butter and oil, about 5 minutes a side, then cook the vegetables, spices and herbs with it for 15 minutes, and salt.",
    "Pour in the hot wine, cover and simmer very gently, turning the meat now and then, for at least 2 hours, until a fork slides in easily.",
    "Rest the meat under foil; take out the spices and herbs and blend the vegetables into the wine.",
    "Reduce the sauce by about half, adjust the salt, and pour it over the meat sliced 1 cm thick.",
    "Serve with polenta or mashed potatoes."
  ],
  "when": {
    "text": "One of the best-loved second courses of a Piedmontese Christmas.",
    "source": {
      "label": "Italia.it, Italy's tourism portal (Ministry of Tourism and ENIT): the Piedmontese Christmas menu (Italian)",
      "url": "https://www.italia.it/it/piemonte/cosa-fare/menu-natale-piemontese-ricette"
    }
  },
  "keeps": {
    "text": "Keeps for 2 days in the fridge in an airtight container, best covered with its sauce. Freezing it is not recommended.",
    "source": {
      "label": "Giallo Zafferano: brasato al Barolo (Italian)",
      "url": "https://ricette.giallozafferano.it/Brasato-al-Barolo.html"
    }
  },
  "variants": [
    {
      "name": "Without a marinade, from Alba",
      "text": "The recipe in Nonna Genia, a book of Langa cooking, has no marinade, though some cooks marinate the meat overnight all the same. A 1 kg piece of veal sottopaletto goes into a copper pan with 25 g each of butter and lardo (cured pork back fat), pounded on the board, onion, garlic, carrot, celery, rosemary, a bay leaf, ten cloves and a little cinnamon, and colours over a fierce heat until dark brown. Three-quarters of a litre of Barolo goes in and cooks almost away, then a ladle of cold water, three times over as each one dries; then hot broth to cover, and at least an hour, covered, over moderate heat. The aromatics are passed through a sieve and the sauce is reduced with the meat back in it; a small glass of rum goes in a quarter of an hour before serving.",
      "source": {
        "label": "Langhe.net: brasato al Barolo, Nonna Genia's recipe from Alba (Italian)",
        "url": "https://langhe.net/ricetta/brasato-al-barolo-2/"
      },
      "recipe": null
    },
    {
      "name": "Flamed with brandy",
      "text": "The browned meat is flamed with a small glass of brandy before the vegetables and the wine go in, then braised for about 4 hours over a very low heat. The bunch of herbs adds parsley and sage, and the spices a grating of nutmeg.",
      "source": {
        "label": "La Cucina Italiana: brasato al Barolo (Italian)",
        "url": "https://www.lacucinaitaliana.it/ricetta/secondi/brasato-al-barolo/"
      },
      "recipe": null
    },
    {
      "name": "With new potatoes",
      "text": "The marinade is optional. The meat, tied like a roast, is browned in butter, the vegetables are softened in the same butter, and the Barolo goes in with bay, cloves and juniper berries. It simmers for 3 hours, topped up now and then with vegetable broth, with halved new potatoes added for the last half hour.",
      "source": {
        "label": "Il Cucchiaio d'Argento: brasato al Barolo (Italian)",
        "url": "https://www.cucchiaio.it/ricetta/ricetta-brasato-barolo/"
      },
      "recipe": null
    },
    {
      "name": "With a rustic sauce",
      "text": "Leave the vegetables in pieces instead of blending them.",
      "source": {
        "label": "Giallo Zafferano: brasato al Barolo (Italian)",
        "url": "https://ricette.giallozafferano.it/Brasato-al-Barolo.html"
      },
      "recipe": null
    }
  ],
  "variantOf": [],
  "usedIn": [],
  "mistakes": [
    "Browning the meat wet from the marinade: it steams and will not colour. Dry it well first.",
    "Letting it boil. Keep the braise at a bare simmer, or the meat tightens and dries.",
    "Blending the sauce with the spices still in it: lift out the spice bag and the herbs first.",
    "Cutting along the grain: the slices come out stringy. Cut across it.",
    "Marinating it out of the fridge, or for more than a day."
  ],
  "abroad": [
    "Cappello del prete is the shoulder clod, a cut from the shoulder with a slight vein of connective tissue (macreuse in France). Ask for a single piece of about 1 kg.",
    "Failing that, choose an inexpensive cut of beef with some fat and connective tissue: the long cooking makes it tender.",
    "Look for Barolo DOCG on the label. Another red will do for a brasato, as long as it is mature and full-bodied, not young; the dish is then no longer brasato al Barolo.",
    "Muslin is sold as cheesecloth in the US.",
    "No immersion blender? Pass the vegetables and wine through a food mill."
  ],
  "image": "https://nonnario.com/assets/img/brasato-al-barolo.jpg",
  "video": null,
  "versions": {
    "page": "https://nonnario.com/recipes/brasato-al-barolo/",
    "markdown": "https://nonnario.com/recipes/brasato-al-barolo.md",
    "json": "https://nonnario.com/recipes/brasato-al-barolo.json"
  },
  "cite": "Cite the recipe's page and the month its sources were checked; for the official text itself, cite the document listed under its sources."
}