Braciole Napolitana

Foodista Cookbook Entry

Category: Main Dishes | Blog URL: http://annuciasmenus.blogspot.com/2010/02/braciole-or-involtini.html

This recipe was entered in The Foodista Best of Food Blogs Cookbook contest, a compilation of the world’s best food blogs which was published in Fall 2010.

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Ingredients

1 1/2 pounds flank steak
1/4 cup dried Italian-style bread crumbs
1 garlic clove minced very fine
1 cup Parmesan Reggiano
3 tablespoons chopped fresh parsley
1 egg
olive oil
salt and pepper to taste
1 cup red wine
1 pot of marinara sauce

Preparation

1
Stir the bread crumbs, cheese, egg, garlic, salt and pepper, parsley, and a few tablespoons of the olive oil in a bowl to blend. Add more olive oil or breadcrumbs depending on whether it is too moist or too dry. You want a filling that will spread out nicely yet hold it's shape. if it is too moist it will spill out during cooking.
2
Lay the flank steak flat on the counter and cover with plastic wrap. Pound it out as thin as you can. You want each piece to be about the size of your hand from the the tips of your fingers to the bottom of your hand without the thumb, that's what my Dad's recipe says :) Rub it with olive oil on both sides and salt and pepper the inside generously.
3
Sprinkle the bread crumb mixture evenly over each steak to cover the top evenly leaving a slight edge. Starting at 1 short end, roll up the steak to enclose the filling completely.
4
Now secure each involtini with about 3 toothpicks. What ever amount you use try and use the same for each roll so that you will remember how many there are when removing them! Some people use twine but that takes sooooo much time.
5
Heat some olive oil in a heavy large skillet over medium heat. Add the involtini and cook until browned on both sides working around the toothpicks, about 5 -6 minutes total.
6
Add the wine to the pan and bring to a boil.
7
Add the involtini and sauce to your pot of marinara sauce cover and cook over a low simmer for several hours, the longer the more tender your beef will be. Just make sure it is a low simmer, barely just moving.
8
Remove the involtini from the sauce. Remove the toothpicks or do like we do in my house where each person removes their own toothpicks and you place a plate on the table for them to discard them. Place the delicious little bundles on a platter with some sauce poured over.
9
They are usually cut into 1/2 inch slices and they look like little pinwheels!
10
Use the sauce to serve over some spaghetti as a side dis

Tools

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About

What Neapolitans call Braciole the rest of Italy calls Involtini.This is my Dad's recipe that he based on a recipe he got from his mother back in Naples, Italy.I have the recipe scribbled in pencil on the inside front cover of my torn and tattered cook-book Marcella Hazan's Classic Italian Cooking which he had given me when I first got married. I cherish that book (It sits out in my kitchen next to my other favorite cook-books) and I cherish this recipe as well.

Yield:

8.0

Added:

Thursday, February 18, 2010 - 4:01am

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