Today I decided to make the most of my Ghisanativa pot. I wanted to cook a UK/US dish that is now part of the international cuisine: roast beef. What better solution than to cook it in a natural cast iron pot this piece of meat?

So I made a rare and very tender roast beef cooked in the oven.

My family enjoyed a delicious English roast cooked just right, well brown on the outside and rare on the inside.

Ingredients for 4 – 6 people

• 1.5 kg veal loin
• 50 ml extra virgin olive oil
• 150 ml vegetable stock
• 1 sprig rosemary
• 4 sage leaves
• Salt to taste

Preparation methodology

To make this recipe, the meat must be kept at room temperature for about an hour.

It should also be very dry so, if necessary, dry it with absorbent paper.

Tie up the meat with kitchen string and tuck the rosemary sprig and sage leaves underneath.

Put the pan on the heat and let it warm up well. Add the oil and then the meat.

Let it brown on all sides over a high flame, so that the meat takes on a nice dark colour and does not look like boiled meat. The Maillard reaction, i.e. the caramelisation of the sugars in the meat, will form that delicious crust, which will make the roast irresistible.

Do not use forks or pointed objects to turn the meat during browning. This avoids piercing the meat and losing the precious liquids that make it soft and succulent to the taste. Use two wooden spoons to brown the piece of meat.

Once browned, salt the meat, add the stock, and put the lid on.

Lower the heat and leave to cook for 20 minutes, checking that the liquid does not dry out completely, if necessary add a little more stock.

To cook a good roast it is necessary to have a heavy and thick pan so that it can spread the heat evenly, does not make the food stick, and cooks slowly. Ghisanativa pans are perfect for this kind of preparation!

To test the cooking of the meat, it is ideal to have a cooking thermometer. Pierce the Roast Beef with the thermometer and if the temperature is 40 degrees you will have rare meat, at 52 degrees it will be brown, and at 58 degrees it will be overcooked.

Another more homemade method to check the degree of cooking is to prick the meat with a toothpick, right up to the heart. If the liquid that comes out is red the meat is raw, if it is transparent it is pinkish if no liquid comes out it is very cooked.

Remove the meat from the pan a few minutes before the end of cooking. And once you think the meat is ready, wrap it in aluminium foil. Let it rest for about twenty minutes so that the juices are well distributed.

Once it has cooled, cut the meat into thin slices and serve with a side dish of your choice. I made roasted potatoes.

Annamaria Iacono

I am Annamaria, married to Calogero and mother of two, Andrea and Valentina. I live in Agrigento, in beautiful Sicily, a land kissed by the sun almost all year round, dotted with almond groves and orange and lemon gardens, where you can indulge in the intoxicating scent of zàgara. In 2015, I started my blog “Annamaria tra forno e fornelli” (Annamaria between the oven and the cooker), in which I try to transmit to those who honour me with their visit, my passion for cooking, the simple and traditional cooking of my grandmothers, who, with very little, managed to create extraordinarily good dishes. I discovered Ghisanativa by chance and I fell in love with it. I have always appreciated cooking in iron pots and this pot reminds me of the cooking of the past and allows me to continue to use the wood-burning stove we have in the country to make all the dishes I want.

This recipe was prepared using