Polenta e bruscitti is the Lombard slow-braised beef stew: chunks of beef shoulder cooked with red wine, butter and fennel seed for three hours until falling-tender, served on a wide raft of corn polenta.
Where to eat it: 5 restaurants across 1 city.
The bruscitti (literally 'small fragments') of the Busto Arsizio plain north-west of Milan are first recorded in the 1860s as a Sunday dish for the Lombard farming households. The slow braise with butter, red wine and a fennel-seed-and-rosemary aromatic profile is the canonical Northern Lombard preparation. The polenta on the side is the rule, soft polenta in modern restaurants, hard polenta sliced for the classical Lombard farmstead style. Trattoria Masuelli San Marco and Antica Trattoria della Pesa serve canonical versions of the dish in central Milan; Ratana cooks a modernised version with house-pulled polenta.
Common allergens: Dairy
Tip from the editors. Crush the fennel seeds in a mortar before adding. Whole fennel seeds stay tough in the braise; crushed seeds release the aromatic oils into the sauce.
This is the TableJourney editorial recipe, modelled on the canonical bistro / counter version. The first place to try the dish in its city of origin is below.
Trattoria Masuelli San Marco in Milan's Porta Romana has cooked the Lombard canon since 1921, family-run by the Masuelli family for four generations.
Signature: Risotto alla milanese, Ossobuco, Cassoeula
Order: The risotto alla milanese with bone marrow, the ossobuco and the cassoeula in winter.
Tip: Bookings open ten days ahead by phone. Cash and card; the wine list runs deep on Lombard producers.
Trattoria del Nuovo Macello in Milan's south-east has cooked the Lombard trattoria canon since 1927, near the old slaughterhouse. The risotto giallo and cotoletta al
Signature: Risotto alla milanese, Cotoletta alla milanese, Ossobuco
Order: The risotto alla milanese, the cotoletta alla milanese with bone in, and the ossobuco when on the carte.
Tip: Bookings open one month ahead on the website. Lunch is the calmer service; Friday evening fills up first.
Antica Trattoria della Pesa in Milan's Porta Garibaldi has cooked the Lombard farmstead canon since 1880, in the old grain-weighing house at the city's northern cust
Signature: Risotto alla milanese, Ossobuco, Cassoeula
Order: The risotto alla milanese, the ossobuco and the cassoeula in winter.
Tip: Bookings open one week ahead by phone. The dining room has the original 1880 wood-panel interior; ask for a table by the window.
Ratana in Milan's Isola district is Cesare Battisti's modern Lombard kitchen, housed in a 19th-century railway building since 2009. The risotto giallo and cotoletta
Signature: Risotto alla milanese, Cotoletta alla milanese, Ossobuco
Order: The risotto alla milanese with bone marrow, the cotoletta alla milanese and the ossobuco.
Tip: Bookings open three weeks ahead. Lunch sittings 12:30 and 14:00; dinner from 19:30. The garden is the spot in summer.
Giannino in Milan since 1899 is the historic Lombard dining room near Stazione Centrale, the family-run kitchen that has fed Milan's industrial bourgeoisie for four
Signature: Risotto alla milanese, Cotoletta alla milanese, Ossobuco con risotto
Order: The risotto alla milanese, the cotoletta alla milanese and the ossobuco con risotto plate.
Tip: Bookings open by phone or website; lunch sittings 12:30 and 13:30. The marble-and-mahogany dining room is the destination.
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