Variations on a theme: braciole

A,

Braciole and boliche seem anomalous to me for Italian and Spanish cooking. A tough but flavorful cut of beef lends itself to the palomilla or the Milanesa. Simple and straight forward. These elaborate stuffed meats are like tuna casserole or something from a British boarding school: busy, well-intentioned, but misguided attempts to gussy up modest fare. But my opinion is based more on empirical evidence than on my conviction that the recipes offend the cuisine. The rolled and stewed steaks are usually terrible, whether at home or in a restaurant.

Maybe I've just never had a good one, but it's not for lack of practice, including at the tables of some otherwise great Italian (and Spanish) cooks.

Hi,

German Rouladen represents a similar style of preparation. When searching for a recipe to link to, I was amused when this recipe suggested "Butterflied steak (steak that is thinly sliced or Italian briscole)..."

I was maybe 10 years old, when I watched my Grandmother make Rouladen. She would buy, what I presume now was round steak, then pound it with a meat tenderizer to shape and size. She would fill it, then put them inside these wire cages, which I still have. It was not my favorite meal, though I thoroughly enjoyed the preparation of it.

I found an article, which touches this preparation crossing cultural lines. "Rouladen, roulades, rollatine, birds, olives and paupiette are all names for thin slices of meat or fish stuffed with a forcemeat or vegetable mixture, rolled, often wrapped in bacon. They are browned and cooked slowly in stock, wine, beer or cream."

I certainly come home to less humble foods than braciole on a regular basis. After all was said and done it was a mighty fine dine. I did have some cheese leakage, but it richened the sauce, and once I let the steam escape from the cover, it stopped happening.

Here are the recipe links for the menu:

Braciole(skipped the eggs and raisins, added season breadcrumbs, used sharp provolone)

http://www.recipelink.com/mf/0/48143

Pasta, a stellar recipe from FOODTV, easy, short ingredient list, fast. Used sharp provolone and parmesan instead of goat cheese. The flavors were a perfect simple complement to the meat.

http://www.foodnetwork.com/food/cda/rec ... GE,00.html

Broccoli with butter and lemon

Grand Marnier Cake (double the liquor in the glaze)

http://southernfood.about.com/od/lemonc ... 40621v.htm

It was a fun meal and very satisfying on cold dreary February day. The company was pleased and satisfied as well.

Btw, the meat was from Paulina, already sliced and flattened.

Cathy, the similarity in these dishes that includes the fillings I found in my Argentinean/American empanada I had on Friday really makes me think.
Then, I am happy.

The largest ethnic group in Argentina, perhaps is Italian. (Perhaps second to Spanish, I am open to correction.)

Italians are also well-represented in southern Brasil, where I lived in 1971 with a family that blended 1st generation Italian with longtime Brasilians of Portuguese ethnicity. I was exposed to some very good food, including things that the wife (the Portugues half) had mastered to fulfill her husband's expectations, like risotto. A risotto (in addition to the white rice to underlay the beans) was a regular at weekend dinners, alternating with a macaroni, many of which were quite deliciously sauced with fish/shellfish.

On the subject of braciole, I favor a recipe given to me by an Italian co-worker from Port Chester, NY. She was a delightful woman, then (earlyl 70s) in her mid-50s, 1st generation of Sicilian parentage. She provided me with lots of recipes that I still use, and diagrams of how to properly plate and serve things (including the Xmas antipasto) that I treasure. She told me one day that she thought I would marry an Italian because "you're more like one of us." She was wrong, but my (non-Italian) husband is a big fan of her recipes, especially the braciole. Nothing but breadcrumbs, some pecorino, parsley, salt and pepper. Roll, brown, cook in a simple tomato sauce. I sometimes now add some fresh thyme. These are for the little braciole.

She was also the first person to educate me on how to match sauces with pasta shapes. She favored a good small shell for this, orechiette is now more common but I don't remember it being generally available then.

She was a tiny woman with a big (dyed) blond helmet of hair, and drove a real muscle car, which I found hilarious. A GTO, if I remember correctly.

All this reminds me that I have some meat in the freezer for making braciole which I didn't have time to make when I purchased it.

On Sunday, February 27 at 7:00 pm CST on Good Eats Alton Brown made braciole and the recipe is posted at http://www.foodnetwork.com/food/recipes/recipe/0,1977,FOOD_9936_21953,00.html
It certainly looked good on screen.

Jesper:

Thanks for the link. He keeps the stuffing very simple from one standpoint (no provolone or eggs, for example) but then goes in for the big herbal flavour. I can certainly imagine it being tasty but that sort of use of three herbs together looks to be his (or someone else's) personal take on the dish. That's fine but when he presents dishes he has to my mind the habit of making it sound as if what he is presenting is either the really 'authentic' (maybe 'traditional' is the better word here) or his improvement on the traditional dish. Which did he do here? I hope he indicated that this was not a traditional recipe.

Just as a side note, I see he browns the rolls in vegetable oil rather than olive oil; I often see this done by t.v. chefs (non-Italians, which includes the cyborg Giada Di Laurentis) and it strikes me as very odd. For an Italian and especialy southern Italian dish of this sort, it really stands out. Not that vegetable oil is never used in Italy, just not in functions such as this.

That said, he's one of the few of the Food Network's current regulars who are worth watching. And, anyway, I agree, it sounds like I nice non-traditional recipe.

Antonius

Antonius wrote:(non-Italians, which includes the cyborg Giada Di Laurentis)

That is a perfect description of her, and explains one of the great mysteries of all times; namely why is her head so big in relation to the rest of her body. I guess they have to have a place to put the control unit.

Antonius,

My recollection from the show is that Alton Brown did not claim the recipe was traditional or an enhancement on the traditional. He was demonstrating two rolled style dishes, one with flank steak and the other with fish. I believe he merely identified this as an Italian-style dish, braciole.

steve z, I know precisely when I lost my faith in Darwin: when I learned that Giada De Laurentiis (La Zucca) was descended from Dino De Laurentiis and Silvana Mangano. That fact alone makes her cooking inexcusable, and implies strongly that the "Struggle for Existence" isn't worth the trouble after all.

Food Nut, I vote yes on the raisins in your braciole del Mezzogiorno (those from the north need not concern us). A neapolitan meal might easily include braciole di maiale (made with pork loin), sausage, meatballs, pork neck bones, etc, slowly simmered in a fine ragu. When accompanied by a good Taurasi and followed by un bicchierino of Strega, the diner becomes an honorary Parthenopean.