Braised Beef Rolls (Braciole di Manzo) Lidia Bastianich

By zircon50

The braciola, stuffed beef rolled and braised, was and still is part of the Sunday sauce tradition in many Italian American homes across America. If you travel through the Italian communities around America today and ask people, “What dish do you remember eating at home on Sunday?,” the answer is often pasta with braciole and meat balls. Meat was far more available in American than back home in Italy, and adding it to a tomato sauce enhanced the ritual Sunday meal, when the whole family was assembled around the table. A braciola is easy to make: once you have gathered all the ingredients and rolled them into a thin beef slice, it cooks in the sauce for several hours rendering, a delicious pasta sauce to coat some rigatoni and fork-tender braciole to eat with braised escarole and olive-oil-mashed potatoes.

Ingredients

• 1 cup milk
• 2 cups stale bread cubes
• 2 pounds to 2 1/2 boneless bottomless round beef rump roast, trimmed of fat
• 1/2 cup chopped fresh Italian parsley
• 2 hard-boiled, coarsely chopped
• 1/4 cup toasted pine nuts
• 5 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
• 1 tablespoon kosher salt, plus more for seasoning
• freshly ground black pepper, to taste
• 4 ounces mild provola cheese, cut into 1/4 inch sticks (you will need 12 pieces)
• 1 medium onion, chopped (about 1 1/2 cups)
• 4 garlic cloves, crushed and peeled
• 1 cup dry white wine
• 2 28-ounce cans Italian plum tomatoes, preferably San Marzano, crushed by hand
• 1 teaspoon dried oregano
• 1/4 teaspoon peperoncino flakes

Preparation

Step 1

Pour milk over bread cubes in a bowl and let soak while you slice the beef.

Slice beef into 2-to-3-ounce slices (ideally, you want twelve pieces). Pound the slices with a mallet to about 1/4 to 1/8 inch thick. If slices tear, don't worry - you can patch as necessary, by overlapping the torn pieces of meat.

For the filling: Squeeze the excess milk from bread and put the bread in a large bowl. Add parsley, eggs, pine nuts, 1 tablespoon olive oil, and 1 teaspoon salt into the bread bowl. Season with pepper.

Lay the pounded beef slices out flat on your work surface, and season with salt. Evenly divide the filling among the slices, approximately 2 to 3 tablespoons for each slice, then spread to within 1 inch of the edge on all slices. Put a piece of provola cheese lengthwise in the middle of each slice. Roll slices lengthwise, and pin the rolls closed with toothpicks by pinching the meat.

Heat the remaining oil in a large Dutch oven over medium heat. Season the braciole with salt, and add to the pot to brown on all sides, about 2 to 3 minutes on each side, in batches if necessary. Remove browned braciole to a plate, and toss the onion into the pot. Cook until the onion is softened, about 4 to 5 minutes, then add garlic. Cook a minute or 2, until garlic is sizzling, then pour the white wine into the pot. Increase heat, bring to a boil, and cook until wine is almost evaporated, about 4 to 5 minutes. Pour in the tomatoes. Slosh out the tomato cans with 1 cup hot water each and add that as well. Season with oregano, peperoncino and remaining 2 teaspoons salt.

Return the sauce to a boil, return the beef rolls to the pot, and adjust heat to maintain a steady simmer. Cover, and cook until braciole are very tender, 1 1/4 to 1 1/2 hours. If sauce is too thin, remove the braciole to a plate and reduce sauce over high heat until it thickens to a gravy consistency.