← Nouns Cooking · Italian

Ingredients

• 600 g thin slices of beef topside or round (4 × 150 g)
• 2 cloves Garlic, finely chopped
• 1 handful Parsley, finely chopped
• 40 g Pecorino romano, finely grated
• 1 tbsp Pine nuts
• 1½ tbsp Raisins
• 3 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
• 1 small onion, finely chopped
• 100 ml dry red wine
• 700 ml Passata
• 4 basil leaves
• Salt
• Black pepper

Method

1. Lay the beef slices between two sheets of baking paper and pound them with a meat mallet or rolling pin until about 5 mm thick. Season lightly with salt and pepper.
2. Scatter each slice with garlic, parsley, pecorino, pine nuts and raisins, leaving a 1 cm border. Roll up tightly from a short end, tucking in the sides, and tie each roll with kitchen string or close it with two cocktail sticks.
3. Heat the oil in a heavy, lidded pan over medium-high heat and brown the rolls on all sides for 8–10 min. Lift them out onto a plate.
4. Lower the heat, add the onion and cook for 5 min until soft. Pour in the wine and let it bubble for 2 min, scraping up the browned bits.
5. Stir in the passata, basil and a pinch of salt, then return the rolls and any juices. Cover with the lid slightly ajar and simmer very gently for 1½ hours, turning the rolls now and then, until a fork slides in easily and the sauce is thick and dark.
6. Remove the string or sticks before serving. Serve the sauce on pasta as a first course, then the braciole as the main, the Neapolitan way.

Tips

• If the sauce thickens too much during the long simmer, add a splash of water.
• The braciole taste even better the next day, reheated gently in their sauce.

Sources

Written in our own words after cross-checking these recipes:

GialloZafferano Marcellina in Cucina Pasta Grammar