Bracciole, Braciole, Whatever!

Tomatoes (Photo credit: kh1234567890)

My Bracciole Recipe. 

Some folks have asked for it.

Making a Bracciole is a time consuming project. 

Here's the deal: I don't really have or use a recipe for this dish and I never make it the same way twice. I rarely use recipes for anything and if I do, usually, use them as a guide. Most recipes have too much fat or cream and often contain gluten. I am comfortable with cooking with what I have on hand and with cooking in general.

With this dish the most important thing is that you stuff the Bracciole with cold cuts or salume you like and that you you cook it a day before and refrigerate it over night in the sauce and then cook it more. The fat in the cold cuts baste the meat as it cooks.

My Italian family is in Northern Italy, but I have no idea how much the way I learned how to make this varies from what was made in La Marche or anywhere in Italy, and how much it was influenced by a lack of availability of products in upstate New York, or poverty. Beyond that recipes probably vary from house to house and day to day. I have never seen another recipe like this online.  I think maybe this is so weird version my mom invented. I also hard boil eggs in sauce so somewhere we must have had a lot of eggs.

Heck, I can't even see much in the way of agreement for how it's spelled. And, in Rome it's a chop! 

How I made it this time: Top Round Roast of Beef, sliced about 3/4 to 1 inch think at the shop in a spiral through the roast as if you were dismantling a jelly roll. I usually use a flank steak which I butterfly and then pound.  I think the flank steak has a better shape but it is more expensive at my Whole Foods. I only use grass fed, natural beef with no water or fillers added.

You cook the meat so long an old cart tire would probably be tender by the end. To stuff the roast, I used Prosciutto, Hot Cappicola, and a smooth pink Mortadella which I think is pretty much Italian bologna with pistachios.  I also used a finely ground romano cheese, parsley, garlic, Borsano seasoned salt, 3 large cans of tomato products ( I used 1 large can of diced San Marino brand, one can whole tomatoes, San Marino brand and one can whole Whole Foods Organic.  The Whole Food tomatoes are my preference because they are closest to tomatoes I have used in Italy and are soft with soft ends. I also had and three hard boiled eggs, a half pound of sausage, two medium onions, 1 green pepper a tablespoon or more of dried oregano.

This would probably serve six to eight.

Oilve Oil

1/2 pound bulk sausage

2 onions, chopped

1 green pepper chopped

3 32 ounce cans of tomato  products, crushed, whole or diced. Don't use sauce or paste.

1 beef roast (top round 1/4 lb per person) spiral cut so it is a long flat piece. I have also used flank steak and butterflied it. To be honest a top round roast probably weighs about four pounds.

metal lacing pins and cooking twine

3 hard boiled eggs or enough to fit the roll

1/2 cup blended Italian cheeses - fontina, romano parmesan. Or just one of them.

1/2 cup breadcrumbs
oregano,  3 cloves minced garlic, salt, pepper, Borsano seasoned salt, 1/2 cup minced parsley

1/2 pound each prosciutto, and hot cappicola. Another half of an Italian cold cut you like, maybe salami. You can actually use whatever combination you like.

Pasta of choice, or gnocchi or polenta.

1/2 to 1 c or more of wine, beef broth or water.

pat of butter

Prepare all your ingredients and have in separate bowls ready to use.

First peel the eggs and snip off the ends so they will line up better. set aside

Use the Borsano or regular salt to season the meat rub with garlic about a 1/4 to 1/3 of what you have minced. Then using a meat pounder or rolling pin, pound the meat between two sheets of plastic wrap. it out as much as possible. It should be roughly rectangular. 

When I roll mine, I don't want an overlapped roll so I will cut it to work out that way.

Sprinkle the parsley, cheese and breadcrumbs on and then place a layer of each cold cut. 

Place the eggs parallel to the orientation you will be rolling up. When you cut the bracciole you will get a cross section of the egg. This picture is my "second roll," a smaller piece I cut off the larger one. Unfortunately the egg smooshed when I was making it, so it's not the "pretty" one—we ate the pretty one!

Some people grind everything up and then roll it like a jelly roll so you have a spiral. not me. There should be enough overlap to close it but I like it the other way.

Roll it up and using whatever combo of skewering and tying you find works. It's going to cook in a sauce so must be secure and the end should be closed.

Brown the beef roll(s) on all sides in olive oil and set aside.

Add more oil to the pan as needed.  Brown the sausage and then saute the onions and peppers until softening and browning, add the garlic, other herbs, and as needed some stock or other liquid.

Add the tomatoes squishing the whole tomatoes with your hand. 

Bring the sauce to a simmer and add more liquid as needed. 

Add the beef roll(s) back in and simmer on very low heat with a diffuser if possible for 4 to 6 hours. Refrigerate over night.  Return to the stove about 2.5 hours before serving and reheat through, add a pat of butter to finish the sauce and mash the whole thing up some. Removing the beef, take off the string and skewers. discard string and if using metal skewers reserve for cleaning and reuse.

Boil up enough water, add salt and pasta, cook as directed. While that cooks, slice and arrange bracciole  with some sauce, serve the pasta as you prefer, plate at the counter or the table. Serve with grated cheese (Parmesan or Romano).