Free Recipe: Roast Beef Studded with Garlic and Parsley
My mom made this roast often. It’s zesty and flavorful.
The roast is easy, delicious, and looks great on the plate. I use a beef eye of the round just the way my mother did. This cut is readily available, and not too expensive.
Make a small hole all the way through the roast and stuff the hole with garlic and parsley. The garlic and parsley infuse their flavor throughout the roast.
Sear the outside of the roast in a hot skillet to form a nice crust all around and pop it in the oven to finish cooking atop a bed of celery, carrot, onion and parsley. You’ll have a nice pan gravy when the roast is done.
You should be eating in about an hour or so.
Serve the roast with your favorite sides – garlic smashed potatoes and sauteed spinach maybe? A gutsy red wine will hold up to this roast with the flavor of garlic and parsley in every tender bite. I served it with a bottle of Taurasi from Campania. A nice chianti would be good too.
If you’re lucky you’ll have roast beef left over for some great sandwiches. I just made one on the Sicilian semolina bread with sesame seeds that I baked over the weekend.
Roast Beef Studded with Garlic and Parsley
Ingredients
- 2-3 pound beef eye of the round roast
- 5 cloves garlic
- 1 cup Italian flat parsley leaves loosely packed
- 2-3 tablespoons EVOO
- 1 small onion
- 1 carrot
- 2 stalks celery
- 3 stems Italian parsley
- 1 cup water
- sea salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste
Cooking Directions
- Heat the oven to 425 degrees.
- Cut or poke a hole or small slit from one end to the other in the middle of the roast. I use a metal skewer or narrow knife to make the hole or slit.
- Stuff the hole with your finger or a chopstick to pack in the garlic and parsley. You want it packed tight enough so that each slice will have some of both in the middle.
- Rub some of the EVOO all over the roast. Sprinkle liberally with salt and pepper.
- Heat about a tablespoon of the oil in a heavy skillet.
- When the oil begins to ripple put the roast, fat cap side if it has one, in the hot oil.
- Over medium-high heat brown the roast, including any flat ends, to form a golden brown crust all over. Set the roast aside.
- Discard excess fat in the pan. Pour in enough water to scrape up the fond, the brown bids on the bottom of the skillet. Set the pan aside.
- In a shallow roasting pan or baking dish put in the onion, carrot, celery and parsley to form a bed for the roast in the middle of the dish. Sprinkle with EVOO.
- Place the roast on the bed.
- Pour in enough water to cover the bottom of the pan. The water should moisten the vegetable bed but should not touch the roast.
- Roast in the oven for about 15 minutes to finish forming the golden brown crust.
- Check the roasting pan and add a bit more water to make sure it does not totally evaporate. This liquid will be part of your pan gravy.
- Reduce the temperature to 375 degrees and roast for another 30 minutes or until the internal temperature of the roast reaches 140 degrees. (For a more rare roast take in out at 120 or 130 degrees.)
- Remove the roast from the oven, put the roast on a plate and set aside for 20 minutes to let the roast rest before slicing.
- Put the skillet with the fond liquid over a medium-high flame. Pour in the juices from the baking dish and any juices in the dish where the roast is resting.
- Simmer over medium heat to reduce the pan gravy a bit.
- Skim off any fat. Keep the pan gravy warm.
- Slice the roast and place the slices on a serving patter and pour the pan gravy over the slices to moisten them.
- Serve immediately with your favorite vegetables and a great rustic Italian bread.
- Serves 4-6.
Made this last night; it was incredible. Easy to make, inexpensive and tastes like something you get at a restaurant. It also looks like something you’d get a restaurant. Served with garlic smashed potatoes, the gravy and a pan-seared portabella mushroom with marsala reduction and wilted arugula. Sliced some up this AM and had a panini with provolone cheese. Heavenly… Thanks Gianni!
Ciao Rick.
Sounds like you hit a home run with this one! Wish I still had a hunk of this roast leftover in my fridge but we ate the last panini a couple of days ago.
–Gianni
Yum, I will make one for Karla for Christmas dinner!
Thanks John
Ciao Wayne. She’s a lucky woman. Buon Natale e buon appetito!