Brasato al Barolo is a signature dish of Piemonte. The key to this dish is using the correct cut of beef. It will make the difference between melt-in-your-mouth tender and mushy-and-tasteless. Make sure you get a decent sized (minimum 1.5 kilos) from the beef shoulder (chuck roast or chuck and blade). I prefer to cook this in my slow cooker (see notes). It requires a bit of advance planning but the amount of time cooking is actually minimal. Two to three days before I want to serve the dish, I take 10 minutes to marinate it. The following day, I cook it on low in the slow cooker for 8 hours then cool and refrigerate it. The final day, I remove all the solidified fat, slice the beef and reheat it in the liquid to serve. Serve this with peas, carrots cooked in butter or Marsala wine or mashed potatoes.