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Braciole
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| Make sure your beef is very lean and as large in size but as thin in thickness as you can convince your butcher to cut it Take out all your frustrations on your beef. Beat it as much as you possibly can, then beat it some more! Cover your beef with a nice, thick coating of filling. This photo shows the "Urban" coarsely processed filling, but "Rustic" leaves the ingredients whole. Yum! Place your braciole into bondage. By all means use thin string (make sure it's not a synthetic fiber or it will melt), or if you're feeling Masterful, try the Master Chef Tieless Tie! Your plump braciole are now ready to brown. Although there is already salt and pepper in the filling, sprinkle salt and freshly ground pepper on the braciole, but only near the end of their browning. The perfect colour when they're ready to be dunked in sauce and mega-simmered. Don't worry about the very dark areas. They'll soften in the sauce and diffuse incredible flavouring. All photos courtesy of www.spaghettisauceandmeatballs.com I have to balance myself on my chair now, as I almost fell over at the thought of them. There are some heretics who substitute the beef for: | |
| Veal, (where's the flavor?) | |
| Pork, (ends up tasting like a messy sausage) | |
| Chicken, (after a day simmering in sauce, chicken turns to limp shreds) | |
| Swordfish, Wild Boar, Horse (you've gotta be kiddin', right?) | |
| There is only one meat for the real braciole, and it's a very lean cutlet of beef tenderized by a few thousand smashes from a heavy meat pounder. Heaven! The greatness of the braciole lies in its fillings. You'll find all sorts of people recommending that you put all sorts of incoherent junk inside your braciole. Disregard them. You should feel indeed honoured as I'm about to share my Mamma's (and her Mamma's and her Mamma's) secret filling for the ultimate braciole. Ingredients are based on six braciole and 100g equals 3 ounces. | |
| 100g | Pine Nuts, (make sure they're sweet and plump, not dry and acrid) |
| 100g | Dark Seedless Small Raisins, (never the golden ones) |
| 100g | Mozzarella, (not Di Bufala, but a good quality pizza cheese) |
| 100g | San Daniele Prosciutto, (beware of cheaper kinds as they're often too salty) |
| 100g | Bread Crumbs, (make them from day-old bread or get them from a bakery, don't buy the stale powder junk from the store) |
| Chopped Parsley | |
| Salt | |
| Pepper | |
You can either go Rustic or Urban with your braciole filling. Rustic takes the ingredients and stuffs them into the braciole as is. Urban puts the filling ingredients through a food processor until they're the consistency of a chunky pesto. I'm a Rustic man myself, but I won't turn down an Urban braciola either!
Apply your filling to one side of the pounded beef cutlet, roll it up very tightly and now secure it.
There are three ways to keep your braciola well-rolled.
1) Tying as shown (make sure to remove the string prior to serving)
2) Fastening with toothpicks (you always end up leaving one in and having your favorite guest stab his tongue with it)
3) The Master Chef Tieless Tie: Once you've rolled up your braciola so tight that it's as hard as a rock, very quickly roll them in hot oil. You're not trying to cook them, but just to brown the outside very fast so that the outside of the braciola "sets" and maintains its shape during the long cooking process ahead. This takes skill and experience, but when it's done well, it's incredible!
Regardless of how you've secured them, you want to brown your braciole in a very tiny bit of oil until they are golden to dark brown all around (don't forget the ends). At this point, you're ready to fully cover them in a big pot of sauce that you intend to keep simmering for at least the next 4 hours, and 8 is better yet!
Yes, you can go with a conventional pasta sauce, but if you want to experience the ultimate braciola which will immediately make you an evangelistic convert to The Church Of Braciolism, put your scrumptious beef rolls into Neapolitan Genovese sauce (See my "The Greatest Pasta Sauce You've Never Tasted"). Once the sauce has simmered all day and taken on the flavour of the dark caramelized onions and oozing braciole fillings, you will be a Braciolist for life!
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