Family Favorite: Braciole

I heard about braciole from the TV show "Everybody Loves Raymond." I figured any dish that would make Ray love Debra's cooking and tick Marie off so badly had to be worth making. I love the stuff. I have used Giada's recipe before but now that I am familiar with it, I kind of wing it.


Here's the cast.

I decided to do a mushroom stuffing this time around.


The mushroom and garlic should be chopped fairly small so they stay nice and compact in the flank steak.


Once the mushrooms and garlic finished cooking, I put them aside and added about 2 cups of red wine to the pan.


A can of chopped tomatoes and some chicken stock went in to reduce.


Give it a good hard boil until it's reduced down some. I added dried oregano after this.



The flank steak has to be pounded flatt-ish--I protected my countertop with a thick wad of paper grocery bags underneath the cutting board. I cover the meat with parchment to prevent meat bits from flying everywhere.


Then you get all the stress out! Use a meat mallet, starting from the center and working outward to get the meat to an even thickness.


That's about right.


I mixed the mushrooms with shredded Parmesan and bread crumbs, pepper and dried oregano.


I cut the flank steak into four pieces.


Each piece got a slice of Provolone cheese...


And a good dollop of the mushroom mixture.


The steak is rolled up (if I had made it even thinner, I could have tucked the sides in to keep the filling more contained).


Round toothpicks are better to secure the meat with than the flat ones. They hold better and they are easier to find after the cooking is done.


Usually I stuff several pieces of flank steak so this time I had a fair amount of leftover stuffing. I put it in the sauce to thicken and season it.


The flank steak was browned on all sides.

 
Then into the crock pot they went. They don't have to be covered in the sauce but turning them during the cooking is a good idea. The crock pot was set on high for about 5 hours.


I served the sauce over fresh pasta with the braciole alongside.


The meat gets really tender and even though some of the filling escaped, enough of it remains in the roll and gives it a great flavor! A few extra mushrooms, some chopped parsley and it's a warming and filling meal.

(this is a good place to start!)


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