Pašticada is a famous Croatian dish. A must try when you visit Dalmatia. The meat is incredibly tender and sweet dessert wine prošek gives it just the right seasoning.
I’ve seen many disputes about what is the proper way to prepare it. Some put apples in it, others don’t and claim that it is not the same dish then. It always happens with old traditional recipes. Everybody has it’s own version and everybody thinks his is the real and best 
Dalmatian Pašticada
(original recipe)
1 large piece of beef round (about 1,5 kg)
4 onions, sliced
3 cloves garlic, sliced
1 celery root, grated
2 carrots, grated
1 tsp sugar
6 cloves
100 g pancetta, sliced
200 ml red wine vinega
100 ml olive oil
300 ml clear beef broth
200 ml red wine
200 ml prošek
100 g raisins
6 prunes
1/2 tsp ground nutmeg
1 tsp tomato puree
Make cuts sizes of garlic and pancetta pieces all over the beef. Place a piece of garlic or pancetta in each hole. Do the same with cloves. Place meat in a large ceramics bowl. Pour vinegar and 200 ml water, cover and leave in the fridge for 1,5-2 days to marinate. Start on Friday if you want to have it for Sunday dinner. While marinating, turn it over occasionally.
On the day of preparation, remove meat from marinade, dry it and reserve marinade for later cooking.
Pour oil in a large, deep frying pan and when it heats add onions, celery, carrots and sugar. When vegetables become soft and fragrant add meat and fry on all sides just to get nice color. My pan was not big enough, so I took most of the vegetables out, fried the meat and then returned the vegetables to the pan.
Add broth and let simmer on low heat for about 2 hours. Pan should be covered, but not completely. You can put a piece of aluminum foil over and leave it opened slightly so that the part of steam can go out, or if you have a lid that has a hole for steam it would be even better. During cooking, if too much liquid evaporates, add some marinade.
Add raisins, prunes, nutmeg, wine and prošek and let boil. Take the meat out of the pan and cut into slices. Return to the pan, add tomato puree and let boil again.
Serve with gnocchi.
15 Comments
What a delicious looking meal!
Looks delicious….
O da, pašticada je jelo koje vrijedi svakog truda i odlično ti je ispala!
Marija, so the reserved marinade is used only in case there is not enough liquid or are you adding some of the marinade before putting it to simmer with the broth and if necessary you add more later?Thanks for the recipe, looks awesome
What do you suggest we should replace prosek if we don't have access to it, maybe sherry?
Ice wine!
This dish sounds awesome. I love how the beef is stuffed with flavorful things like garlic and panchetta.
jedno od mojih omiljenij jela, a u tvojoj izvedbi nestvarno dobro…odusevljena sam!!
Ovo nisam nikad probala, ali izgleda jako ukusno :)))
Marija, hvala na isprobavanju recepta. Meni je pašticada bila veliki izazov zbog toga što je to jedno od onih jela oko kojih se uvijek vode polemike. Dodati koncentriranu rajčicu ili ne, koje suho voće staviti, da li dodati svježe voće. Sve me te rasprave zabavljaju, a jelo koje se tako marinira, pa onda polako kuha mora biti i vrhunski gastronomski užitak, što je meni i bilo.Divim se kako si predivno ovo prezentirala. Divota je pogledati ovu fotografiju.
FlyingRoo, reserved marinade is used if there's not enough liquid.About prosek, maybe you could use Porto?
This looks sooooo good. It looks like comfort food! Yum!
This looks so good! With all those flavors that go into the meat. I am saving the recipe. Thank you for sharing, Marija!
Pašticada mi je jedno od najdražih jela na svijetu. Ona je obavezan dio svečanog ili blagdanskoga ručka. :)Ova izgleda predobro, super si je napravila tako da sam sigurna da ste uživali.
What a beautiful dish Marija. This marinade sounds so good. Will be trying this one!
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