I was unprepared to say the least for this Italian feast. There was lasagna, meatballs, braciole, bread, salad and I'm sure much more. One of the family sayings is, "There's too much food, again". But at the end of the meal no one seemed to mind as they divied up enough leftovers to graze on for the rest of the week!
However, if you didn't take a slice of braciole during the first passing of the bowl, you sorely missed out. So many years have passed and I attempted to replicate the elusive braciole. I've never been able to get the recipe (there probably isn't one) so I relied on the Internet for guidelines. Thanks to Giada I may have pulled it off! It's a little time consuming but relatively easy.
Ingredients:
1/2 c dried or fresh crumbled Italian style bread crumbs
1 garlic clove, minced
1/2 c Parmesan, grated
1/2 c Provolone cheese, grated
2 T Parsley, chopped fresh
4 T olive oil
Flank steak, about 1 - 1 1/2 lb
1 c white wine
3 cups tomato sauce or your choice of marinara
salt & pepper to taste
Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
Mix the first 5 ingredients and add 2 T of the oil to moisten. Meanwhile, lay out the flank steak. Place the mixture evenly on top pressing it in. Start to roll it up and secure it with twine. In an oven proof skillet brown the braciole on all sides. Add the wine, wait for it to bubble and then add the marinara. Cover with foil and bake in the oven for 1 hour basting every 30 minutes. Uncover for another 30 minutes (total time 1 1/2 hours)
Cut the braciole on the diagonal and serve on a plate with the sauce spooned over it. Yum! Perfect for that special Sunday dinner. Just add the pasta!
One of my favorites! When I lived down in SoCal, around my Dad's family, I would go over to my Grandma's house and she would almost always have 2 braciole. 1 for Uncle Frank and the other one we would have to fight over and or split. I did have these braciole my mom Wendy made. They were delicious, but a little different from Grandma's. I guess these only come from the Pulia region of Italy and each town or village has their own twist on this recipe. Grandma would actually put these in the pot with the olive oil, garlic and onion as the starter for her sauce and she would build the sauce over these and let them cook in it, usually with some meatballs as well. I love you Mom!! Keep up the great blog!!
ReplyDeleteAll good things must take their time. From the picture it was sure worth the time and effort you placed. It looks delicious.
ReplyDeleteI just mad braciole the other night, it's funny because our blogs have a lot of the same things! Isn't the sauce from the braciole the best sauce ever? I used my left over sauce last night for homemade ravioli!
ReplyDelete