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Beef olives (there are no olives in this dish, in spite of the name!) braised in a red wine and tomato stock are truly delicious. You can vary the stuffing of the beef with other ingredients that you may like, but this one works really well.

Serves: 2
Preparation Time: 10 minutes
Cook Time: 1 hour

INGREDIENTS:

4 slices of lean beef (minute steaks are a good choice)
1 tbsp strong mustard
1 medium onions, finely chopped
4 or 5 mushrooms, finely chopped
1 stick of celery, finely chopped
1 garlic clove, finely chopped
1 tbsp olive oil
a few baby spinach leaves
small handful of pine nuts

For the sauce
14 oz beef stock
2-3 tbsp tomato puree or passata
5 oz red wine
1 tbsp rosemary, leaves only, chopped

METHOD:

Heat oven to 170 C/325 F/Gas Mark 5. Lightly ‘bash’ out each piece of beef so that they are about ¼ inch thick. Brush each piece with mustard.

In a pan, gently fry off the onions, mushrooms, garlic and celery until soft. Add the spinach and pine nuts and stir together. Starting at one edge, divide the filling between each of the slices, and roll tightly to a cylinder. Use cocktail sticks to keep the roll together. Place in a baking dish.

Mix the red wine and stock in a pan and bring to the boil, then simmer for 5 minutes. Add the tomato puree/passata and the rosemary and simmer for a further 5 minutes.

Pour the sauce over the beef, and cook in the oven for 45 minutes – 1 hour, covered in foil to prevent burning.

Serve with fresh seasonal vegetables and buttery mashed potato.