Stufatu di Cinghiale — Wild Boar Slow Braise

Ingredients

• 1.8 kg wild boar, bone-in pieces — shoulder, neck, or leg; large cuts
• For the marinade
• 750 ml Niellucciu rouge, full bottle; strained and reserved after marinade
• 8 juniper berries, lightly crushed
• 3 bay leaves
• 4 sprigs thyme, fresh
• 2 sprigs rosemary, fresh
• For the braise
• 60 ml Corsican olive oil
• 150 g panzetta, cut into lardons
• 4 cloves garlic
• 200 g tomato, additional; roughly chopped or crushed
• 4 sprigs fresh maquis herbs, thyme, rosemary, and bay; combined
• To serve
• 400 g chestnut flour, for pulenda; cooked to a thick porridge
• 60 g brocciu passu, aged; finely grated over finished stufatu

Method

1. 1
   Place the boar pieces in a deep non-reactive vessel. Add the Niellucciu, juniper berries, bay, thyme, and rosemary. The meat must be fully submerged. Cover and refrigerate overnight — a minimum of twelve hours. The marinade is complete when the meat surface has darkened and the flesh yields slightly to pressure.
2. 2
   Remove the boar from the marinade and pat each piece thoroughly dry. Strain the marinade through a fine sieve and reserve the liquid; discard the spent aromatics. Heat the Corsican olive oil in the tianu or a heavy braising vessel over high heat. Brown the boar pieces in batches, without crowding, until a deep mahogany crust forms on all surfaces. This step is where the dish lives or dies: insufficient browning produces a pallid sauce without foundation; the Maillard crust formed here is the structural flavour of everything that follows.
3. 3
   Reduce the heat. Add the panzetta lardons to the residual fat and render until the fat runs and the edges begin to colour. Add the garlic and cook briefly until fragrant — thirty seconds at most. Add the tomato and stir to combine with the panzetta and pan residues. The base smells of concentrated pork fat, tomato, and garlic — unified rather than raw.
4. 4
   Return the browned boar to the vessel. Pour the strained marinade over the meat. Add the fresh maquis herbs. Bring to a bare simmer on the hob. Seal the tianu tightly — with a lid and, if required, a paste of flour and water along the rim — and transfer to an oven set at 140 °C. Braise for four to five hours minimum. The boar is ready when the meat pulls cleanly from the bone with no resistance and the sauce has reduced to a deep, mahogany-coloured liquid.
5. 5
   In the final hour, if boar bones have been reserved, add them to the braising liquid. The collagen released thickens the sauce to a consistency no reduction alone achieves. Remove bones before service.
6. 6
   Prepare the pulenda: whisk chestnut flour into salted boiling water in a steady stream, stirring continuously over medium heat until the mass pulls from the sides of the pot and holds its shape as a thick, cohesive porridge. The aroma is of toasted chestnut — sweet and dry against the savour of the braise.
7. 7
   Serve the stufatu over the pulenda. Grate brocciu passu over the finished dish at table. The surface of the stew should be very dark and glossy; the meat should hold its form on the plate while yielding immediately to the fork.