The Horse Stew Salento recipe, better known as “pezzetti di cavallo”, is an ancient recipe, a cornerstone of Salento tradition found in every restaurant serving typical cuisine and also in food stalls at every village festival.
This Horse Stew Salento recipe is very simple to prepare but requires a long cooking time over very low heat, that’s the secret to cooking horse pieces in the Salento style.
The slow cooking in tomato sauce makes the meat fork-tender and all the flavors come through, I guarantee it.
A very tender meat that literally melts in your mouth, not to mention the final dipping with good durum wheat bread makes everyone who tastes the horse pieces go crazy.
If you like Salento cuisine, you can try the Salento pucce or the Pugliese octopus salad.
Below I leave you other recipes for making stew in different ways with different meats and then right after the photo, let’s discover how to prepare the Horse Stew Salento Recipe!!
- Difficulty: Very easy
- Cost: Inexpensive
- Preparation time: 15 Minutes
- Portions: 4
- Cooking methods: Stovetop, Slow Cooking
- Cuisine: Italian
- Seasonality: All seasons
Ingredients for the Horse Stew Salento Recipe
- 3.31 lbs horse (pieces or stew)
- 1 onion
- 4.23 cups tomato sauce
- 1 glass red wine
- 1 carrot
- 1 stalk celery
- 1 clove garlic
- 4 leaves bay
- 3 tbsps extra virgin olive oil
- 5 cloves
- 2 pinches salt
- to taste black pepper
- 1 chili pepper
- 1 bunch parsley
Preparation of Horse Stew Salento Recipe
Preparing the Horse Stew is very simple, first peel the onion and slice it thinly.
Set aside and chop the parsley with the garlic clove, carrot, and celery.
Heat the extra virgin olive oil in a preferably earthenware pot and sauté the previously prepared chopped mixture along with the onion.
As soon as everything sizzles, add the black pepper, bay leaves, salt, and cloves, stir and sauté for a few minutes.
Add the horse pieces, browning them briefly and stirring occasionally, deglaze with the red wine.
Raise the heat and let the red wine evaporate until you no longer smell the alcohol, always over high heat.
Now add the tomato sauce, chili pepper, and adjust the salt, keeping the heat high until it starts boiling again.
At this point, lower the heat to the minimum using the smallest burner available.
Cook the horse pieces in Salento style for at least 3 hours, stirring occasionally with a wooden spoon.
Always check that the cooking base does not dry too much, if it happens add a little boiling water (not to interrupt the boiling altogether).
At the end of cooking, the horse pieces in Salento style should fall apart at the touch of a fork.
Once cooked, remove the bay leaves and serve accompanied by homemade bread.
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How to store Horse Pieces in Salento Style
You can store the stew in an airtight container in the refrigerator for 2 days.
Other recipes
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