Greek Beef stew with Orzo pasta - Giouvetsi greek recipe!

A traditional Greek Giouvetsi (youvetsi) recipe made with orzo pasta, beef and a delicious tomato sauce. This is the perfect dish for your Sunday family dinner! Amazingly tasty and tender!

For the little story, Giouvetsi, or youvetsi is a centuries old dish that was traditionally served as a one-pot meal and in the old days it would have been baked in a home’s wood burning oven.

There were also many instances where a home did not have an oven but each village had at least one bakery supplying bread for the guaranteed demand of the villagers. It was quite common for a family to lug the day’s dish over to the bakery and have dish cooked in the baker’s oven…

Ingredients

• 1 kg/ 35 ounces veal, diced

• 2 medium red onions, finely chopped

• 2 carrots, sliced (1 cm thick)

• 1 tin of chopped tomatoes (400g / 14 oz.)

• 2 tbsps tomato paste

• 1 tsp sugar

• 1 cinnamon stick

• 1/2 cup of olive oil

• 250g orzo pasta (9 ounces) ( kritharaki / manestra )

• 100g grated cheese (5 ounces)

Instructions

1. Wipe the meat with paper towels. Heat 1/2 of a cup of olive oil into a pan, add the chopped onions and carrots and sauté for 5 minutes in medium-low heat. Turn up the heat and add the veal; brown the meat on all sides until crusty.

2. Stir in the tomato paste, sauté for a minute. Add the tinned tomatoes, the sugar, the cinnamon stick and a good pinch of salt and pepper and enough water to cover the meat.

3. Turn the heat down and simmer with the lid on for about 45 minutes or until the beef is tender and fully cooked. Occasionally stir and top up with hot water if the sauce starts to dry out.

4. In the meantime, heat another pan, add 3 tbsps of olive oil and the orzo pasta and sauté, until golden.

5. Once your meat is done simmering, place the orzo pasta in an oven tray along with the meat and sauce (remove the cinnamon stick) and mix. If needed, add enough water so that the pasta is just covered. Cover the tray with some aluminum foil and bake in preheated oven at 180C for 30 minutes. Remove the aluminum foil, add a glass of water if needed, and put back in the oven for another 15 minutes. Sprinkle with some grated hard yellow cheese and enjoy!

(Thank you: www.mygreekdish.com)