Italian

Veal Stew with Peas: Spezzatino

Spezzatino — the Italian term for any preparation of small, irregular pieces of meat stewed in a flavoured liquid — is the everyday expression of the Italian braise principle. Hazan's veal spezzatino demonstrates the technique's essential elements: thorough browning in batches, soffritto base, white wine acid, and the specific Italian timing preference for peas added at the very end rather than braised with the meat.

ServesFour portions

Sourced0of 10 in BC

Cook

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800 g

veal shoulder or leg

cut into 2–3 cm irregular pieces

Not yet stocked in British Columbia

60 ml

olive oil

Your own market

For the soffritto

1 medium

onion

finely chopped

Your own market

1 stick

celery

finely chopped

Your own market

1 medium

carrot

finely chopped

Your own market

120 ml

dry white wine

Not yet stocked in British Columbia

250 ml

meat broth

light veal or chicken, warm

Not yet stocked in British Columbia

300 g

peas

fresh-shelled or frozen

Not yet stocked in British Columbia

1 tsp

fine salt

Your own market

1 tsp

black pepper

freshly ground

Your own market

The Method

Pat the veal pieces thoroughly dry. Season with salt and pepper. Heat the olive oil in a wide, heavy pan over high heat. Brown the veal in 2–3 batches, ensuring no pieces touch; each batch requires direct pan contact on all sides. Remove each batch to a plate as it is done. The surface of each piece should be a deep, even mahogany.

Reduce the heat to medium. Without discarding the fat or cleaning the pan, add the onion, celery, and carrot to the fond left by the meat. Cook the soffritto, stirring frequently, until the onion is soft and translucent and the vegetables have begun to colour.

Raise the heat to medium-high. Pour in the white wine and stir, scraping up any fond adhering to the base of the pan. Allow the wine to reduce completely — it is ready when no sharp alcohol vapour rises and the pan is nearly dry again.

Return all the browned veal to the pan. Add enough warm broth to come partway up the meat. Bring to a gentle simmer, cover, and cook over low heat for approximately 45 minutes, or until the veal yields without resistance when pressed with a spoon.

Add the peas to the pan in the final 10 minutes of cooking. Cover and continue at a gentle simmer. The peas are done when they are tender but retain their bright green colour — grey-green signals they have cooked too long.

Taste the braising liquid and correct the seasoning. The sauce should be lightly bound — neither watery nor thick. Serve directly from the pan.

III

Quality Hierarchy

Reserve — Milk-fed veal from a named producer, fresh-shelled peas in season, home-made light veal broth, a dry white wine of some character (Soave Classico or Verdicchio).

Estate — Good rose veal from a known butcher, fresh-shelled peas or high-quality frozen petits pois, a careful bought stock, a clean dry white wine.

Market — Supermarket veal leg or shoulder cut to size, frozen peas, a reliable bought chicken stock, an inexpensive dry white wine fit for drinking.

House — Veal shoulder from whatever source is available, standard frozen peas, a stock cube dissolved in hot water, any dry white wine in the kitchen.

Sensory Tests

◇Sight. Each piece of veal shows a deep, even mahogany crust on all browned surfaces before it leaves the pan.

◇Smell. No sharp alcohol vapour rises from the pan after the wine is added — the reduction is complete.

◇Touch. The veal yields without resistance when pressed with the back of a spoon after approximately 45 minutes of braising.

◇Sight. The peas remain bright green at the moment they are judged done; any shift toward grey-green marks overcooking.

◇Where it lives or dies. The dish lives or dies in the browning: veal pieces must go into the pan in uncrowded batches with full pan contact — a crowded pan steams the meat grey rather than browning it, and no subsequent step recovers the depth of flavour and colour that proper searing alone produces.

V · Cross-Cuisine Parallels

French blanquette de veau applies a comparable braise principle to veal but withholds browning entirely, arriving at a white sauce by a deliberately opposite aesthetic choice. Spanish estofado de ternera shares the soffritto base and white wine acid but typically braises the vegetables with the meat throughout rather than holding them back. The Italian braise principle as named in Hazan underpins rabbit, lamb, and pork spezzatino by identical method — only the meat and the finishing vegetable change.

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What to Pour

A dry, unoaked or lightly oaked Italian white — Soave Classico, Verdicchio dei Castelli di Jesi, or Pinot Grigio delle Venezie — whose acidity mirrors the white wine used in the braise without competing with the delicate flavour of the veal.

The whole pairing

VII · Origin & Lineage

Spezzatino is a pan-Italian domestic preparation, its name derived from the verb spezzare (to break into pieces). Hazan's version belongs to the northern Italian tradition — Emilian and Venetian domestic cooking — where veal is the preferred braising meat, white wine is the acid of choice, and restraint in seasoning and enrichment is the governing principle. It is the everyday expression of the Italian braise, as Hazan frames it: technique over elaboration.

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