Braciole is a recipe that is perfect for a special occasion that only requires 20 minutes of active preparation time. Flank Steak is topped with cheese, herbs, and breadcrumbs, seared, and then roasted in tomato sauce. Let this recipe for Braciole with tomato sauce be your secret weapon for hosting a dinnerparty.
This scalable Braciole recipe requires very little active preparation time, and is a perfect dinner to serve for a special occasion.
Braciole is an Italian meat dish that consists of thin flank steak rolled up with cheese, herbs, and breadcrumbs. The first step to prepare braciole with a tomato sauce is to pound the meat out until it is very thin.
Next you create a mixture of cheese, garlic, and breadcrumbs. I like to use a blend of Parmesan and provolone.
The cheese and breadcrumb mixture gets spread over the steak.
Then you roll up the steak and tie it up with butcher’s twine.
The meat is quickly browned before being cooked low and slow in a pool of tomato sauce.
The result is slices of tender beef with swirls of cheese, herbs, and breadcrumbs. It’s easy and elegant, and sure to impress your dinner guests.
The active preparation time for this recipe is just 20 minutes, and you can easily increase the number of portions by purchasing a larger steak. I love recipes that can be scaled without any extra effort.
If you have a large dutch oven you could even cook two bracioles together.
I like to use my roasted tomato sauce in this recipe. It is my go-to tomato sauce recipe. It is made my pureeing roasted cherry tomatoes and has a really fresh taste.
Sometimes I serve Braciole with roasted potatoes and asparagus.
Most recently I served it with baked penne in tomato sauce and creamy spinach.
And for dessert… I made an angel food cake with a light whipped chocolate frosting – it one of my all-time favorite desserts!
This is one of my favorite meals to serve at a dinner party – the prep work can all be done in advance before guests arrive.
Before we get to the recipe – want some more recipes for a special dinner? Here are some options:
This is my Mom’s recipe for Braciole – it is made with a red wine sauce instead of being cooked in tomato sauce.
I love this Classic Chicken Marsala recipe and it tastes even better then it is made a day ahead of time.
How to make Braciole with Tomato Sauce:
Braciole with Tomato Sauce
Yield: 2-3 servings
Active Time: 20 minutes
Additional Time: 1 hour30 minutes
Total Time: 1 hour50 minutes
Braciole is a recipe that is perfect for a special occasion that only requires 20 minutes of active preparation time. Flank Steak is topped with cheese, herbs, and breadcrumbs, seared, and then roasted in tomato sauce. Let this recipe be your secret weapon for hosting a dinner party.
Ingredients
1 lb - 1.25lb Flank Steak
Salt and Pepper
1/3 cup grated Parmesan
1/3 cup grated Provolone
1/3 cup Italian Breadcrumbs
2 tablespoons finely chopped Italian Parsley
2 cloves pressed or finely chopped garlic
2 tablespoons Butter
1 cup White Wine
3 cups Tomato Sauce
*Butchers Twine
Instructions
First heat your oven to 300 degrees.
Then get started by pounding the flank steak to make it thinner. Pound it for about a minute getting it as thin as possible. Then dust both sides with salt and pepper.
Mix the Parmesan, Provolone, breadcrumbs, parsley, and garlic together in a bowl. Then spread them out evenly on the top of the flank steak.
Next roll up the steak, and tie it closed with 3-4 pieces of butcher's twine. Tie the twine tightly so that the filling won't fall out of the steak as it cooks.
Then melt the butter in a dutch oven over medium high heat, and brown the steak on all sides. This will take about 8 minutes total, turning the steak every 2 minutes.
Once the steak has been browned, add the white wine, and bring to a bubble. Then pour the tomato sauce over the steak, and cover it with a lid, and place it in the oven.
Roast the steak at 300 degrees for 1 1/2 hours, basting the steak every 30 minutes, by spooning the tomato sauce over it.
After 90 minutes, pull the dutch oven out of the oven, and let the braciole rest for 10 minutes before slicing it. Remove the butcher's twine as you slice. Serve immediately after slicing, spooning some of the tomato sauce on top.
Did you make this recipe?
Please leave a comment on the blog or share a photo on Instagram
Besides top round, bottom round, eye of round, flank steak, or sirloin can be used. They should all be pounded flat to 1/4″ thick for easy rolling. Kitchen twine will hold more securely, but toothpicks work well and are far easier to remove.
You can easily make braciole a day or two ahead of time, I've done that many times especially for parties. If I make them ahead of time for a party I also like to take my time removing the strings and cutting the rolls while they're cold.
Further, if you haven't pounded the meat thin enough, it can still be tough after cooking, so make sure to pound it to an even, thin slice. Lastly, the cooking time matters, as if you cook it too short it can be tough, so make sure to cook it slow and prolonged to get a more tender result.
Braciole is an Italian-style roulade, a rolled and stuffed meat. It is also called involtini, or bruciuluni in Sicilian. The etymology of the word translates to slice of meat rolled over coals. The meat — typically beef, veal, or pork — is pounded thin and stuffed with prosciutto, breadcrumbs, cheese, and herbs.
The Ribeye is generally considered to be the most flavourful steak. These steaks are cut from the ribs and contain a lot of marbling throughout. The muscle from where the Ribeye is cut, isn't used often so the meat is very tender.
Seasoning a steak overnight is all about enhancing flavor and, in some cases, tenderizing the meat. When you season a steak and let it sit in the refrigerator for several hours or even a full day, you're giving those seasonings time to work their magic.
There is only one real difference in the actual techniques of braciole versus involtini. "Involtini" translates to "little bundles," and as such, it's used to refer to smaller and thinner cuts of meat.
Braising the meat rolls slowly at low heat ensures tender meat that won't dry out. Braising the braciole in a covered pan for half the cooking time before finishing with the lid off guarantees the sauce doesn't over-reduce.
Pasta alla carbonara! If the mixture of egg yolk and grated cheese is to thick it will be difficult to coat the pasta evenly, if it's too thin one risks cooking the eggs to a mess of scramble eggs and cheese. If the guanciale is cooked for too long it will be too crispy or even hard as bullets.
Starting at 1 short end, roll up the steak as for a jelly roll to enclose the filling completely. Using butcher's twine, tie the steak roll to secure. Sprinkle the braciole with salt and pepper.
While it has deep roots in Italian cuisine, the Braciole most familiar to American palates is largely an Italian-American invention, molded by the hands of immigrants adapting to a new land while longing for their native flavors. In Italy, "braciole" often refers to simple grilled slices of meat, usually pork.
The cut of beef used for Italian beef is typically chuck. The beef is slow cooked until fall-apart tender, then piled high in a hoagie bun with some of the meat's tasty, sloppy cooking juices.
Italian Beef is chuck roast (the cut of meat used for pot roast) that is slowly cooked with savory Italian spices until it is soft and tender and easily shredded with a fork. To create the iconic sandwich, soft hoagie rolls are filled with this shredded meat, and then topped with sliced provolone and pickled peppers.
Capicola, commonly known as capocollo in Italy, is a classic cured meat made from pork neck or shoulder, with paprika, spices, and herbs. It is also dry-cured, very thinly sliced, and commonly served as an appetizer or snack.
Introduction: My name is Rueben Jacobs, I am a cooperative, beautiful, kind, comfortable, glamorous, open, magnificent person who loves writing and wants to share my knowledge and understanding with you.
We notice you're using an ad blocker
Without advertising income, we can't keep making this site awesome for you.