Boeuf Bourguignon – Just Another Fancy Name for Beef Stew

Spezzatino di manzo protein ingredients
Zeke watching football 6

So I had my heart set on making a nice Beef Bourguignon for Sunday supper. I mean, what better than a nice hearty stew with chunks of beef, bits of bacon, mushrooms and pearl onions done in a thick sauce based on French wine? Went to 2 grocery stores, couldn’t find any pearl onions – not a problem, got a small bag of onions instead. I get home, look in the refrigerator for a chunk of bacon – nope, not any of that either. But I find pancetta and a chunk of salt pork, okay, we can use that instead. Burgundy in the wine bucket, nope again, but we have Chianti. So I start chopping, and browning, and simmering and within 30 minutes I have this beautiful stew getting ready in the oven. And also watching NFL football while I’m cooking … and Zeke the dog is helping out … watching NFL football on tv … and everything is right in the world. But then I start thinking, I can’t really call this boeuf bourguignon, it’s not French, has no burgundy, bacon, or pearl onions – but wait a minute, that’s just a fancy name for beef stew!! So let’s go one better, since I’m using Italian pancetta, and Italian Chianti, and Italian herbs – let’s call it beef stew in Italian!! So there we have it … Spezzatino di Manzo al Chianti (Beef Stew) … I thought I was being original, but when I googled the name I got a few hundred other recipes with the same name … beef stew, in Italian 😊