Sunday, February 7, 2010

Italian Rolled Flank Steak

Some of the recipes that I found for a traditional braciole (pronounced bra`zhule) included hard boiled eggs. I have taken several recipes and combined them to make my version of this hearty and tasty Italian treat. When I took the photos I was making 3 braciole for a larger party. In that case I didn’t bake the braciole in the same skillet that I used to fry them. I purchased a large foil pan. Clean up was a breeze!

Ingredients:

1 flank steak
½ cup bread crumbs ( I use Progresso Italian Bread crumbs)
½ cup parmesan cheese
Handful of finely chopped fresh Italian flat leaf parsley
Handful of finely sliced fresh basil
Olive oil
Cooking twine for tying the steak
Large jar of your favorite pasta sauce (I use Classico Tomato Basil)
½ white onion chopped
½ cup red wine

Directions:

Combine the bread crumbs, cheese, parsley & basil in a bowl. Drizzle olive oil into the bowl and stir to combine until mixture holds together like moist sand in your hand. In other words you don’t want the mixture to be dripping with olive oil, but it needs to hold together enough to stay stuffed in the meat.

Lay the flank steak out flat. Place the stuffing on top of the flank steak and pat down to cover entire surface. Roll the flank steak, like rolling up a sleeping bag, starting at the short end. Tie tightly with string.

Heat a heavy skillet that is oven safe, on the stove. Drizzle olive oil in the pan. Fry the rolled steak 5 minutes on each side. Remove from pan.

Drizzle a bit more olive oil in pan, sauté onions for about five minutes. Add the wine to deglaze pan. When it starts to bubble, add the pasta sauce. Add rolled steak and juices back to pan. Cover pan tightly with aluminum foil and place in a 350 degree oven for 2 – 2 ½ hours.

Remove from oven and let stand for 20 – 30 minutes before slicing in delicious rounds of tastiness. Serve with scoop of sauce on top.