Oven-Baked Beef with Orzo Pasta

Name: Oven-Baked Beef with Orzo Pasta
Yield: 4 servings
Cuisine: Greek
Ingredients: 500-800g beef for stew (i used 500g beef rib meat); 2 cloves of garlic; 1 onion; 1 red bell pepper; 1 level tablespoon tomato paste; 1/2 can of tomatoes (400g can); 2 bay leaves; 7 allspice berries; 3 cloves; 1 teaspoon dried oregano; 2 pinches cinnamon; 300g orzo pasta; salt, black pepper; 2 tablespoons oil

January 29, 2014

Veal Pasta Meat Dishes Greek

I promised you a beef giouvetsi in the fall and today all the weather conditions were met. I prepared the beef in the oven, in an aromatic sauce, and at the end I placed it together with orzo in individual glazed clay pots. Wonderful!

Ingredients

500-800g beef for stew (I used 500g beef rib meat)
2 cloves of garlic
1 onion
1 red bell pepper
1 level tablespoon tomato paste
1/2 can of tomatoes (400g can)
2 bay leaves
7 allspice berries
3 cloves
1 teaspoon dried oregano
2 pinches cinnamon
300g orzo pasta
salt, black pepper
2 tablespoons oil

Servings: 4

How to prepare oven-baked beef with orzo pasta

Cut the meat into large pieces and brown them in a tablespoon of hot oil. Remove the pan from heat, add the crushed garlic cloves and stir for 1 minute, until it smells pleasantly of garlic. Transfer the entire contents of the pan to a deeper oven-safe dish.
Wipe the pan with a paper towel and heat another tablespoon of oil. Add the finely chopped onion and bell pepper cut into small cubes. Sauté the vegetables over low heat until very soft and the onion is golden (about 15 minutes). Stir occasionally.
Add the tomato paste and sauté for about 3 minutes to caramelize the paste slightly.
Add the canned tomatoes with all their juice, blended in a blender. Add the aromatics (bay leaf, allspice, oregano, cloves, cinnamon). Cook for 2 minutes.
Add 3 cups of water to the tomato sauce and bring to a boil. Season with salt and black pepper.
Pour the hot sauce over the meat in the oven-safe dish. Shake the pot well to settle the contents. Cover the dish with aluminum foil as tightly as possible so no steam escapes.
Bake at 160°C for 3 hours. After 2 hours you can check the meat, pierce it with a fork and see if it breaks apart easily. My ribs were very well cooked in 3 hours.
Now you have two options:
- Finish the dish in a single pot, the one that was in the oven: add all the orzo over the meat, shake the pot to settle it well and cover with the sauce from the pot. Add salt to the sauce, to be a bit saltier than normal because you've added the pasta and they also need salt. Put the dish back in the oven at 180°C for approximately 15-20 minutes. Check that the orzo is cooked and only then remove the dish from the oven. Don't let the orzo dry out in the oven, there should still be a little liquid on the surface when done.

- Finish the dish in 4 individual pots: divide the meat among the 4 pots. Put 75g of orzo around the meat in each. Add 1/4 of the sauce from the pot (salt it a bit more than normal; make sure to include vegetables from the sauce in each portion) over each portion. Shake the pots well to mix the liquid with the orzo. Bake at 180°C for 15-20 minutes, until the orzo is cooked.