There also won't be any exact amounts listed in the recipe, because I don't use them. I learned by watching my mother who learned from my grandfather. He was a true Sicilian who fought the Italian army when he was in Italy and fought the Mafia when he was in the US. Both subjects for future blogs.
Bracciole:
2 lbs. round steak, carefully trimmed of fat and sliced into thin sheets
Handful or more of pignoli (pine nuts)
Handful of golden raisins
Chopped fresh herbs: I like basil, parsley, and marjoram
2-3 cloves garlic, crushed
ground black pepper
salt
Lay the slices of meat on a cutting board and cover with the garlic, salt, pepper, herbs, nuts and raisins. Some people like to add more, it's good to experiment.
Italian bracciole emphasizes more cheese and larger amounts of herbs. The African/Mediterranean influence here can be seen in the nuts and raisins.
The tricky part comes next and that is rolling up the meat and tying it with kitchen string. Then take the bracciole and put them in a cast iron frying pan that has been coated with good olive oil. Using medium heat brown the bracciole on all sides. If the heat is too high, the oil will smoke; if too low, the juices will come out of the meat. You don't need to cook them all the way through, just enough to brown the meat and sear in the juices. Turn them so they are browned on all sides.
Your next step is to add a very good quality tomato sauce and simmer for 2-3 hours. You want the meat to be very tender, but not so tender that it is falling away from the string.
Gently remove each bracciola from the sauce, let it cool a bit, and carefully remove the string. Return to the sauce. Serve with pasta.
A good red wine is always welcome.
Sounds yummy! (from Mary)
ReplyDeleteI've not heard of this dish, but I'd certainly give it a try :-))
ReplyDeleteSimilar to what they here call beef olives, they put olives and garlic inside the meat and roll up, I think my hubby will prefer your Bracciole, so hereby copied pasted and stolen. Yum! Thank you .
ReplyDeleteWe have a similar dish... we add one slice of cheese and one thin slice of 'prosciutto crudo'. Sometimes, we don't use kitchen string but toothpicks, instead. Thanks for sharing this recipe and the photos that picture well the yummy dish..
ReplyDeletebracciole like spaghetti sauce can be made so many different ways and yours looks delicious :)
ReplyDeleteI had no idea you were Sicilian (my grandparents came to the US from the Italian region of Molise)
Bracciole is made in different ways. I never ate it with raisins and nuts. We usually have it with garlic and parsley. This looks very good. Thanks for sharing your cultural heritage. I thought that your family came from the Campania. That's where both sides of my family came from. You're right about the Arabic influence on Sicily.
ReplyDelete