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Serves
6-8 depending on serving size
Author Notes
When I was growing up every year for the holidays, Thanksgiving or Christmas my family was divided. You see my Dad was Italian and my Mom American. Dad had to have an Italian meal always, but Mom wanted a traditional holiday meal like turkey and dressing etc.. To please everyone my Mom made two meals every holiday, Italian food to please Dad and a complete turkey dinner, this included dessert mind you. Italian cheesecake for my Father and pumpkin and pecan pie for the other dessert. One staple with the Italian end of the meal was bracciole, a economical cut of beef like round steak, pounded pretty thin and stuffed with bread, egg, cheese, parsley, toasted pine nuts and raisins. My Mom's bracciole was a show stopper, mine well not so much but it tastes delicious. I omitted the raisins because I don't like them and picked them out even as a kid but everything else is there. With the bracciole Mom made homemade pasta. It was a wonderful meal.all of it but the bracciole has always been one of my favorites and when I eat it it reminds me of home. —sdebrango
Ingredients
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2 pounds
round or flank steak (ask the butcher to cut thin for bracciole, pound with mallet so that the meat is evenly thin the meat is rolled
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1 cup
stale bread soaked in water to soften (squeeze water out)
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2
hard boiled eggs sliced
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1/3 cup
pecorino romano cheese
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1/4 cup
chopped Italian parsley
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salt and pepper to taste
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2 tablespoons
toasted pine nuts
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your favorite tomato sauce recipe a marinara
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optional raisins
Directions
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Bring steak to room temperature, lay on cutting board and pound thin but don't over pound it so that it tears. Set aside
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Squeeze the water out of the bread, hard boil the eggs peel and slice, grate your cheese, toast your pine nuts and chop your parsley.
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Lay the steak out on the cutting board season with salt and pepper. have butchers twine ready to tie it up once rolled. Place a layer of the soaked bread on the steak at one end, not all the way to the long ends, leave about an inch on each end. sprinkle with romano cheese, parsley and some pine nuts and optional raisins. Lay the egg slices on top and season with some pepper. Fold each long end to the edge of the stuffing and start rolling making sure the ends are tucked in. Once it's rolled tie it with butchers twine to keep it together.
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Heat some olive oil in a dutch oven on high. Sear the meat on all sides, Remove from the pot and prepare your tomato sauce as you normally would. When sauce is ready to cook Place meat in sauce and simmer for at least 2 1/2 hours so that it's very tender.
To serve remove string or twine and slice in rounds, spoon sauce and grated cheese on top and enjoy.
I have loved to cook for as long as I can remember, am self taught learning as I go. I come from a large Italian family and food was at the center of almost every gathering. My grandfather made his own wine and I remember the barrels of wine in the cellar of my grandfathers home, I watched my mother and aunts making homemade pasta and remember how wonderful it was to sit down to a truly amazing dinner. Cooking for me is a way to express myself its my creative outlet. I enjoy making all types of food but especially enjoy baking,
I live in Brooklyn, NY, and I share my home with my two dogs Izzy and Nando.
I like to collect cookbooks and scour magazines and newspapers for recipes. I hope one day to organize them.
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