Posts tagged ‘Italian beef roulade’

Bracciole For Fiesta Friday #95

The other day I was reminiscing about the Thanksgivings of my childhood and was thinking how much work my Mom put into the meal. My Dad was Italian my Mom American and on holidays we had a bit of a culture clash. Dad wanted Italian food and Mom a traditional Thanksgiving meal so in order to please everyone she made both, she roasted a capon, made dressing and the sides and homemade pasta and bracciole. If you have never heard of or had bracciole you should seek it out, it’s delicious, Round or flank steak cut and pounded thin and made into a roulade or rolled with a stuffing, The stuffings vary a bit but my Mom stuffed with bread soaked in milk, grated romano cheese, pine nuts, raisins and hard boiled egg. Roll and tie, sear and cook low and slow in the tomato sauce. It’s amazingly delicious and brings back memories of home and the holidays, My Mom’s always looked perfect and made a gorgeous presentation mine is not as beautiful but tastes almost exactly the same as hers. I lived in Italy years ago, in Napoli and one of my friends made this one day and I loved that she made small individual rolls, I thought it was a wonderful idea but opted to make it like my Mother and do one big roll.

I am bringing my childhood favorite, bracciole to the party this week which is hosted by Angie and the lovely co hosts  Loretta @ Safari of the Mind and Petra @ Food Eat Love. 

Bracciole

Serves 6-8

1 1/2-2 lb round or flank steak cut thin and pounded with malet

1 cup bread soaked in milk or water

2 hard boiled eggs

1/3 cup pecorino romano cheese grated

1/4 cup Italian parsley chopped

2 tbs toasted pine nuts

raisins a scattering- optional

salt and pepper to taste

your favorite recipe for tomato sauce or marinara

1. Bring steak to room temperature, lay on cutting board and pound thin but don’t over pound it so that it tears. Set aside
2. Squeeze the water out of the bread, hard boil the eggs peel and slice, grate your cheese, toast your pine nuts and chop your parsley.
3. Lay the steak out on the cutting board season with salt and pepper. have butchers twine ready to tie it up once rolled. Place a layer of the soaked bread on the steak at one end, not all the way to the long ends, leave about an inch on each end. sprinkle with romano cheese, parsley and some pine nuts and optional raisins. Lay the egg slices on top and season with some pepper. Fold each long end to the edge of the stuffing and start rolling making sure the ends are tucked in. Once it’s rolled tie it with butchers twine to keep it together.
4. Heat some olive oil in a dutch oven on high. Sear the meat on all sides, Remove from the pot and prepare your tomato sauce as you normally would. When sauce is ready to cook Place meat in sauce and simmer for at least 2 1/2 hours so that it’s very tender. To serve remove string or twine and slice in rounds, spoon sauce and grated cheese on top and enjoy.

bracciole