Welcome to Buona Domenica, a weekly newsletter of Italian home cooking and baking. I’m a journalist, cooking teacher, occasional tour guide, and author of eight cookbooks on Italian cuisine.
This week’s newsletter features a recipe for Braciola alla Napoletana—stuffed beef roll braised in tomato sauce, accessible to paid subscribers; plus links to three favorite September recipes for all subscribers.
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When I was working on The Glorious Soups and Stews of Italy (book #1), I hesitated over where to place my recipe for braciola—stuffed and rolled flank steak braised in tomato sauce.
The book is organized by season, and all of the soups and stews in the Summer chapter were, naturally, on the light side—Zucchini Blossoms in Summer Broth, Mussel Stew with Roasted Peppers, Tuna and White Bean Stew, Fagiolini all’Uccelletto (tomato-braised green beans) and the like. Logically, I knew that a large, slow-cooked piece of beef belonged to fall or winter. But, I also reasoned, that is not when I typically made it. I always seemed to develop a hankering for braciola (or braciole, plural) in early September—when it was still officially summer but I could feel fall swirling towards us in the breezy days and cool evenings.
In the end, I went with my instinct and put the recipe in the Summer chapter, and I’m glad it did. Even now, nearly two decades later, I still love braciola at this time of year more than any other. It’s rich enough to be comfort food but somehow not as rib-sticking as stews and braises of winter. The tender-ropy texture of flank steak keeps it from being so, as does the seasoned breadcrumb filling, which seems almost light and fluffy as it absorbs the juices from the meat and sauce.
It’s accommodating, too: make braciola and serve it out of the pot, sliced into spirals and topped with sauce. Or turn it into a two-course Sunday dinner, with pasta and sauce as the “primo” and the sliced braciola as “secondo.” Like other stews and braises, braciola benefits from a rest, if you have the time. I prefer to make it a day in advance and let it chill overnight in the fridge before reheating, slicing, and serving.
Braciola is a Neapolitan preparation, though you’ll also find versions in Puglia and Calabria and elsewhere in the south of Italy. The classic version is typically made with small slices of meat—beef top sirloin or pork loin for example—that are stuffed and tied or secured with toothpicks before being browned and then cooked in sauce. Hence the plural braciole, since there are many little bundles simmering at once. The large version, like the one in The Glorious Soups and Stews of Italy and the version I’m posting here, is perhaps better known in Italian as rotolo di manzo (beef roll), which is what I called it in the book.
To further confuse things, the actual translation of braciole is “chops,” and indeed if you search “braciole di maiale,” you’ll find recipes for pork chops. What’s more, in other parts of Italy, stuffed meat rolls are often called “involtini,” from the verb “involtare,” to wrap. Are your eyes crossed yet? Mine are. But this is also why we find Italian cooking endlessly, confoundingly appealing, right?
In the book version of this recipe, I rolled the flank steak around a filling of seasoned breadcrumbs, prosciutto, and whole, peeled hard-boiled eggs. I’ve since decided that the eggs are distracting and add unnecessary weight to the dish, so I now leave them out. (I do love HB eggs in meatloaf, though.) I also tweaked the seasoning and the sauce a bit.
The hardest part of making braciola, which isn’t that hard at all, is butterflying and pounding the flank steak. I give instructions in the recipe, and it’s pretty easy if you have a sharp knife. But in the interest of transparency, I admit that I usually leave this to the butcher, as knife skills have never been my strength and these days my wrists really object to the pounding.
OTHER RECIPES TO MAKE THIS TIME OF YEAR
September Swordfish Stew
Polpettone alla Ligure
Egg-Stuffed Meatloaf
Is there a favorite dish you like to make as summer transitions to fall?
RECIPE: Braciola alla Napoletana
The ultimate end-of-summer comfort food, braciola (or braciole, plural) is a classic Neapolitan dish of rolled meat—usually beef or pork—stuffed with prosciutto, cheese, and seasoned breadcrumbs and cooked in tomato sauce. Raisins and pine nuts are often part of the equation, though I’ve left them out here. You can make small braciole using slices of top round or top sirloin, stuffing and rolling them individually. Or you can use a butterflied flank steak to make one large braciola, which is what I’ve done. Either way, the prepared meat is first browned and then slowly braised in sauce until tender enough to slice—but not so tender that it falls apart.
Click below for the full recipe, available to paid subscribers:
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Alla prossima,
Domenica
I remember my mom, long-past gone, making braciole for Sunday's 'gravy'. Back in the day, pasta,
which we called macaroni, sauce was called gravy. She had a special wooden board on which she would mince together, garlic, parsley, and salt pork. She would spread the mixture onto the thinly sliced beef, tie them up and saute them in evoo until lightly brown and add them to the gravy. My family still yearns for her braciole.
Thanks for your recipe.
Domenica, do you have any follow up books to Preserving Italy? I'm looking for some things i haven't seen in that book. Specifically attempting to preserve pesto. Thanks in advance.