Spezzatino di Manzo

Name: Spezzatino di Manzo
Total time: 90 min
Yield: 6 servings
Cuisine: Italian
Ingredients: Beef mince; Olive oil; Onion; Carrot; Celery; Red wine; Tinned plum tomatoes; Tinned cannellini beans; Black pepper

Spezzatino di Manzo, plated as one serving.

401 kcal a serving, against 648 for the traditional version. That is 247 kcal off, or 38%, with 43.2g of protein. Serves 6. 90 minutes.

What the traditional version is

Fatty cubes of beef chuck and diced pancetta, browned hard in generous glugs of olive oil. Braised for hours with root vegetables, red wine and tomatoes. It's usually finished with chunks of potato that soak up the beef fat and turn into little flavour bombs.

What changed, and what each change costs

1000g of 15% fat beef mince and 100g of pancetta down to 1000g of 5% fat beef mince

I'm treating the 15% mince as a stand-in for the traditional fatty chuck. Dropping the pancetta and switching to lean meat strips away an enormous amount of fat from the pot.

What it costs you. You lose the chew of whole meat chunks and that distinct cured pork background note. The texture is entirely different, and you can't fake the mouthfeel of slow-cooked collagen.

60g of olive oil down to 15g

You only need a fraction of the oil to get the onions, celery and carrots softening. The tomatoes and wine provide all the moisture you need later on.

What it costs you. Lean mince cooked in very little oil tends to sweat rather than fry. You have to cook it patiently and accept it won't get that deeply crusty brown exterior you'd get from a fierce fry in 100ml of oil.

600g of potatoes for 400g of tinned cannellini beans

Potatoes are brilliant for soaking up sauce, but beans do the exact same job while dragging a lot of extra protein into the bowl.

What it costs you. Call it a meat and bean stew rather than a meat and potato stew anymore and you'll be about right. The beans add a creamy texture that some traditionalists might hate, and they don't break down at the edges quite like a good potato does.

What goes in it

The ingredients, without the quantities. The weights are what the figures below are computed from, and they are in the book.

Beef mince
Olive oil
Onion
Carrot
Celery
Red wine
Tinned plum tomatoes
Tinned cannellini beans
Black pepper

How it starts

Heat the olive oil in a heavy pot over a medium heat.
Turn the heat up high and push the vegetables to the edges.
Because this is 5% fat meat, it'll release water.

The rest of the method, and every weight, is in Authentic-ish Italian.

The numbers

Per serving	Traditional	Lightened
Calories	648	401
Protein	37.9g	43.2g
Fat	39.3g	12.2g
Saturated fat	12.3g	4.2g
Carbohydrate	29g	24.3g
Protein per 100 kcal	5.8g	10.8g

Every figure is computed from the recipe's own weighed ingredient list against public food composition databases. The appendix in Authentic-ish Italian prints the exact database row used for each ingredient, so any number here can be checked. How every number is computed sets out the method.

Allergens. celery, sulphites.

The method is in the book

A proper Italian stew reworked for a frantic weeknight. You lose the traditional beef chunks, but gain a thick, comforting bowl that hits heavy on protein and light on fat. The beans make it incredibly filling, and the red wine keeps it tasting like a traditional kitchen.

The quantities and the method for this dish are in Authentic-ish Italian, along with 59 more. Buy the paperback