Amarone beef carpaccio

Served with a Sichuan pepper sauce, crème fraiche and persimmon purée. This recipe was created for DoctorWine by Valerio Sorrentino Chef Divinum WineClub Milan. We pair this with a Valpolicella Classico Superiore Ognisanti di Novare 2020 Bertani.

Considering the marinades, you need to begin preparing this recipe two days before serving.

Ingredients for 4 people:

1 200g jar of crème fraiche (soured thick cream), 2 ripe persimmons and celery sprouts (or its yellow leaves).

For the Amarone carpaccio: 600g beef rump, 48g salt, 48g sugar, 1 rosemary sprig, 3 thyme sprigs, 1 garlic clove and 1 bottle Amarone.

For the Sichuan pepper sauce: 90g hazelnuts, 5g Sichuan pepper, 150g sunflower oil and 1 teaspoon tomato paste.

Directions:

Clean any residual fat and cartilage from the beef rump and keep in the refrigerator.

Strip the rosemary and thyme, peel the garlic clove and remove the inner bud. Use a knife (or cutter) to chop everything together and add in the salt and sugar.

Sprinkle the rub over the meat, shake it in a Tupperware container and let sit for 12 hours.

After this, rinse the beef under cold water, dry with paper towels and put it back into a tall and narrow Tupperware container. Cover the meat completely with the Amarone and let it marinate for 24 hours. Remove the meat from the wine, dry it and wrap it in plastic to create a cylinder.

Place the meat in the freezer for around 2-3 hours so it can harden and make it easier to slice.

For the Sichuan pepper sauce: Roughly chop the hazelnuts and the pepper. Mix together in a small pot the oil, tomato paste and chopped nuts and pepper and then heat slowly. Keep stirring until the ingredients become toasted. This is evident by the aroma released from the nuts and pepper, which take on a woody color. Let cool then preserve in the refrigerator.

For the persimmon sauce: Peel the ripe persimmons and then blend them with a mixer to obtain a smooth purée. Put the sauce in a baby bottle (or a single-use pastry bag) and keep in the refrigerator.

Remove the beef from the freezer, take off the plastic wrap and slice the meat as thinly as possible. You can also use a mechanical slicer.

Cover a serving plate completely with slices of beef. Use a spoon to equally spread the Sichuan pepper sauce over all the meat. Uniformly distribute drops of the crème fraiche and persimmon purée all over the plate and garnish with the celery sprouts or leaves and serve.

Wine to pair:

(edited by Stefania Vinciguerra)

Valpolicella Classico Superiore Ognisanti di Novare 2020 Bertani

Intense and lively ruby red color. Clear and enveloping aromas of black cherries, hints of plums, cassis, tobacco. Tense and rich taste, savory, warm, well sustained by acidity, delicate tannins, well blended in and powerful yet agile body.

Production area: Valpolicella Classica, Tenuta Novare Estate in Arbizzano di Negrar, from the Ognisanti vineyard, with a western exposure, made up of eight terraces covering a total of 2.92 hectares, situated near the Ognisanti church. Eocene limestone soil, white and pinkish-white marl, with a thin effective soil depth (50 cm) and a sandy-silty texture.

Grape varieties: 95% Corvina Veronese (Novare massal selection), 5% Rondinella. Double Guyot training system. Average age of vines 20 years.

Ageing: in French oak barrels for 1 year, at least 6 months of bottle maturation. 

Alcohol content: 12.5% vol.

Serving temperature: 16-18 C°. 

Recommended food pairings: first courses with meat sauces (also fresh stuffed pastas), mixed boiled meats, grilled or roasted red meats.

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