Stewed Wild Boar
Description
Want to impress your guests with traditional food? Here are some tips to prepare one of the most famous and flavorful main courses: stewed wild boar, a typical Tuscan recipe that’s perfect for game meat lovers.
Although wild boar meat is highly prized and delicious, it is known for its rather firm, sometimes tough texture. That’s why it’s essential to marinate it for several hours — for example, in milk — to make it softer and more tender.
This flavorful autumn dish also has several variations: the marinade can be made with red wine — the most common version — or with vinegar, and it can be served in various ways, such as with polenta or a side of potatoes. Finally, using butter is recommended to achieve a creamy sauce.
Ingredients
to recalculate the ingredient amounts
- Wild Boar 1000 g
- UHT whole milk 500 ml
- Butter 20 g
- Tomato pulp 400 g
- Celery stalk 2
- Sage 30 g
- Clove 3
- Bay leaves 4
- Carrots 2
- Onion 2
- Juniper berries 3
- Garlic clove 2
- Rosemary 2
- Extra virgin olive oil 50 g
- Chili pepper q.b.
- Nutmeg q.b.
- Salt q.b.
Instructions
- 1 To marinate the wild boar for stewing, cut the meat into pieces and place them in a pot. Add one chopped carrot, one onion, one celery stalk, and the aromatics: a sprig of rosemary, a few sage leaves, three cloves, two bay leaves, three juniper berries, and some peppercorns. Pour in whole milk so that it covers the meat, cover everything, and let it marinate in the refrigerator for 10 hours.
- 2 After the marinating time has passed, drain everything and remove the aromatics. Then, place the dried meat cubes on paper towels to pat them dry. Put the meat in a large pan, turn on the heat, and cover it for a few minutes so the meat releases its moisture. Repeat this process a couple of times to completely eliminate the gamey odor.
- 3 At this point, finely chop one onion, one carrot, one celery stalk, and two garlic cloves. Place them in another pot with four tablespoons of oil, and add a sprig of rosemary, a few sage leaves, and two bay leaves. Sauté for 20 minutes, then remove the herbs and add the meat, browning it for a few more minutes. Stir in 400 g of tomato passata and start cooking over low heat with the lid almost closed. About every half hour, stir and moisten the meat with some broth or hot water. After a couple of hours, season with salt and add chili pepper to taste.
- 4 After about 4 hours, check if the meat has become tender. If not, continue cooking. When you’re almost done, add some nutmeg, adjust the salt and pepper, and finish cooking uncovered so the sauce can thicken slightly. To make the dish even creamier, add a knob of butter and cook until it melts. Serve your stewed wild boar hot.
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