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1
Place the beef pieces in a heavy oven-safe Dutch oven. Add the halved head of garlic, the whole black peppercorns, and the tomatoes. Pour over the entire bottle of Chianti Classico — the liquid should submerge the meat. No other additions are made. Bring to a simmer on the stove; the surface should show a slow, regular movement.
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2
Transfer to an oven at 160°C. Cook for 3–4 hours, or alternatively overnight (8 hours) at 120–130°C. This is where the dish lives or dies: the temperature must remain low enough that the wine concentrates into the meat rather than evaporating from it — too high, and the liquid boils off before the collagen converts and the meat toughens irreparably. At the correct temperature the surface barely trembles throughout.
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3
The dish is ready when the meat yields completely to pressure and the wine has reduced to a dark, almost wine-black sauce of coating consistency. Lift out the garlic halves; squeeze the softened cloves from their skins back into the sauce and stir through. Discard the skins. The sauce must be aggressively peppery on the palate — this is correct, not excessive.
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4
Serve the meat and its dark sauce over Tuscan unsalted bread or polenta. The neutral base is not optional — it carries the intensity of the sauce without competing with it.