cooking @ home

This is one of those delicious dishes I haven’t had for so long. The very first time I had it was many years ago when I actually made it. Yes, it was a recipe and it was during the days when I was all into The Frugal Gourmet, my first television chef inspiration. Braciole (pronounced bra’zhul) was one of the dishes featured on his PBS show and in one of his very first books. Really though how could a guy in his twenties having seen this being made on the TV screen not instantly fall in love with the idea of braciole? I mean: It’s like a jelly roll made of steak!!! Obviously the same Olympus god who created beer surely must have had his hand in the making this as well.

The second time (and the third and the fourth) I had this dish was in the best place on Earth or at least in North America I can think of to have it, namely in Little Italy in New York City. Luna’s on Mulberry Street to be precise. Huge portions, so juicy, so …. scrumptious. Really it was as they say “to die for”. And here I am once again faithfully revisiting a past delight.

I have no idea right now how I made the first one. Somewhere in this house I’m sure my old tattered copy of Jeff Smith’s hardback must surely reside (despite a few housing moves between then and now), but I can’t put my hands on it. I have no idea what kind of beef I made it with either, though traditionally it’s either a round steak or a flank steak, the former of which is how I made it this particular time.

Ok, I have to get into two things here. What “traditionally” means and what steak I actually used. I will however forgo explaining what the definition of “is” is.

First, traditionally in Italy braciole, also referred to as braciola, can mean different things in different areas of the country. It doesn’t even have to be beef; apparently, it can also be veal and sometimes even pork. It’s sometimes a cutlet and not always rolled up either. Some places it’s served with sauce and in others it’s not. And of course, the stuffings can vary as well. I’ve seen it with ingredients such as copacola and raisins in it, and several times chopped hard boiled eggs. And in still other cases the cheese used can vary too. I’ve seen this often made with pecorino romano. And a couple of times with mozzarella (though I woudn’t use that one for this specific dish, personally). So, I use the word traditionally somewhat loosely. As far as I’m concerned, if it’s good enough for Little Italy (using beef, rolling it up, etc) then it’s good enough for me.

Back to the meat. Well, this is what got me into making this dish the other day. I was looking through my freezer and my eyes ended up resting on the slab of London Broil before me. And I started to wonder what I could do with it that would be different. Then I recall reading that basically sliced London Broil was flank steak. (Which is and isn’t a misnomer or, as you’ll see, possibly two misnomers.) What get’s things confusing for me is there’s on the one hand what recipes say and on the other hand what actually exists or doesn’t exist at the super market.

I constantly see flank steak, skirt steak and similar ingredients listed in book recipes and mentioned on television cooking shows, yet in real life these are elusive creatures for I have never once seen either of these, not in passing nor even a comprehensive search for them at the super market. Not once. So recently I did a little research and found out that London Broil is supposed to be a method of cooking, not a type of meat. I dunno about you, but my area super markets are totally oblivious to this fact, for they indeed sell what is labeled London Broil. Doesn’t matter to them that every television chef and culinary school that’s impossible, the fact remains they do. And not a single super market, they all do, without fail.

Ah, you’ll recall I said something about two misnomers, well the second thing is, the cut they sell at the markets can actually come from either of two totally different sides of the beast. It could be a slab from the flank or it can be top round. (Mine turned out to be two pounds of the latter.) In any event, I took my so-called “London broil”, and sliced it down through three times, making a formerly one-inch thick cut of beef into four long 1/4 inch cuts. And then I pounded each even thinner still, making them even more tender before cooking.

That done, I thought, so, just what shall I do with this now? And it came to me … Steak roll, baby! Ray Barrone, eat your heart out.

  

Braciole
©2007 Harry Kenney

ingredients:

stuffing:

2 slices potato bread, toasted then crunched into bread crumbs
(you can substitute roughly 3/4 cup of Italian seasoned bread crumbs)
4 tbsps minced garlic
10-12 unpitted kamala olives, minced (or green olives, or optional)
1/3 cup grated parmegen
1/2 small yellow onion, minced
salt
pepper
3/4 tbps dried oregano
1 1/2 tbsps parsley flakes
olive oil (see below for amount)

2 lbs top round (or flank steak or “London broil”), sliced into 1/4 inch thickness and pounded thin
1 28 oz jar Classico Carernet Marinara (or similar marinara or tomato sauce)
1.5 cups Merlot (or any find dry red wine)

Take your slab of beef, cut thinnly to about 1/4 inch thick. Take your cooking pounder or meat tenderizer and using the “textured” not the flat side, place each slice of meat on the counter between two sheets of plastic wrap, and pound thin and out towards the sides. Then reserve on a plate.

To make the stuffing or paste, take bread crumbs, garlic, olives, onion, parmegan, and seasonings, mix together and add olive oil until you achieve a not too thin, moist consistency. Take each slice of steak, spread out on a cutting board, season with salt and pepper, then spoon the stuffing lightly across the entire steak. Take the smaller side (if you ends are uneven) and carefully wrap up into a roll. Using toothpicks or kitchen string, bind the roll so it retains it’s shape and so stuffing doesn’t fall out of the ends. Repeat the procedure using up the rest of the stuffing and steaks.

Preheat oven to 375°F. In a skillet — preferably one you can place in the oven — place olive oil and brown all four sides of the steak on high heat. If it sticks, leave it until the pan tells you (yes, tells you) when it is done and you can have it. This will take 12-20 minutes.

Take steak rolls out of pan and place on plate. Add wine to the frying pan to deglaze (get the delicious brown bits out of the bottom of the pan). Once this is done, you have two choices. If your frying pan is able to be put into the oven, place your steaks back into the pan with the wine in it. If your frying pan is not able to be placed in the oven, this is the time to get out your oven dish or pan that you will be using, and place the steak in that and add the wine from the pan.

Now, in the vessel that contains the steak rolls and wine, add the marinara or sauce you will be using. Place the pan (if it’s not a pan, fine, I’ll be calling it a pan from now on though) in the oven with the lid on. Every 20-25 minutes come by and turn the rolls over 180 so the top gets sauce. After your second time doing it (roughly 40-50 minutes into the baking, take the lid off the pan and let it resume. At about 70-75 minutes, check your dish for the proper or desired meat temperature, and it should be done. Reminder: If you didn’t use string, do not forget to remove the toothpicks.

Suggest serving with the wine-enriched sauce on top, and along side a small helping of fresh spaghetti. Have a glass of the same red wine you used in the sauce as the perfect accompanying beverage. Makes 4-5 servings.