Braciole

Braciole

During one of my latest trips to the grocery store, we picked up some flank/flap meat. Our first intention was carne asada. But this morning I felt like doing something different with it. My first thought was to roll it up with a spinach mixture and broil it.

Well, while I was rolling through a few channels mid-morning. I came across the cooking show, 'Secrets of a Restaurant Chef.' She was making Braciole. I am familiar with it, the recipe usually calls for raisins, which is why I haven't made it before. If you don't know, raisins are my husbands kryptonite. He hates them!

So much to my surprise, this recipe did not call for raisins and I had almost everything I needed! I made my list and headed to the store for a few things; excited to try something new and delicious!

Traditionally, Braciole is made with a low quality meat such as round steak. It doesn't have to be an expensive cut of meat because you will be cooking it for a few hours in a wonderful tomato sauce.

I arrived home and set out to start my prep work. This dish needs to simmer in the sauce for a few hours, so off I went to make the stuffing.

The stuffing....dear lord, the stuffing! I started off the stuffing with some chopped pancetta, while that crisped up on low heat, I chopped two onions to get the sauce and the stuffing going. I added the onions to both pans with about 3 tbsp of olive oil. While both onions were sweating in separate pans (with a pinch of red crushed pepper in each pan), I chopped my mushrooms and fresh spinach. 

One thing I changed in this recipe was the bread. The chef used a day (or so) old half piece of crusty Italian bread. She cut off the crust and then cubed the bread. Next she added about a half cup of milk and tossed to soak and soften the bread. I decided to cut that way back and I used ¾ cup of breadcrumbs and then added a few tbsp of milk. While the onions are sweating, I chopped mushrooms and fresh spinach.

Once the onions and pancetta are ready for the stuffing. Add in 2 cups of sliced button mushrooms, add a good pinch of salt and continue to cook on low until the mushrooms are soft and cooked. Turn off the heat and stir in your spinach. You want it to just wilt but not over cook. In a few minutes I removed from heat and added to the breadcrumbs. I then added ¼ cup of Parmesan cheese and ¼ cup of Provolone cheese. Mix well....and then, taste it!

At this point I sorta lost my mind. The stuffing alone was AMAZING! I had not had much to eat this day, but I think I made up for it while sampling the stuffing. Holy cow, if I could explain the smells and tastes coming from my kitchen at this point I would. YUM-MY! Let's just say....I would eat this stuffing out of the trash! I'm not really surprised, I've used Procuitto in my Thanksgiving stuffing for the last few years and it's always delicious. I do think I might use this stuffing in other things...like turkey breast.

So after the stuffing was ready, I prepared my meat. If you were using round steak, then you'd want to pound out that meat very flat so that you can stuff and roll it. I was using skirt steak, so there wasn't much for me to do. I cut the meat to size, spread the stuffing mix, and then rolled it up. 

Snag: I forgot to buy toothpicks, but if you have them then use them to close up the meat rolls so the stuffing doesn't fall out. I highly recommend this! (My stuffing fell out a little while I was browning.) You could also use kitchen twine. Just remove the tooth picks or twine before serving. 

Next, brown the rolls in olive oil and then add to the tomato sauce to cook. Cover and cook on low for one hour, then check the tenderness of your meat. Cook them until the meat is fork tender, rolling them around in the tomato sauce.

For my side dish I roasted zucchini and drizzled some of the tomato sauce on them as well. Feel free to top with grated Parmesan cheese and chopped parsley.

Thanks for reading, enjoy!

Samantha B.