Meaty Monday: Rolling in Braciole And Quick Marinara

You all  are going to have to live with a repost of a favorite for two reasons: First, We're having this today for dinner, but from a batch I froze a months ago and I need room in the freezer for the holidays. And second, I had to go to a work event last night and had some internet connection problems yesterday. So today's Meaty Monday entry is an oldie, but very, very goodie. This is very easy to double and freeze for another hurry-up meal.

My mom stayed home when I was a kid, and depending on her mood, there’d occasionally be some sort of Italian extravaganza of pasta and meats and sauce for dinner.  My dad and I loved it. A favorite was braciole and rigatoni. The first time I ever heard my mother swear was while she was flattening the beef for braciole and dropped the mallet on her bare toes. It added greatly to my vocabulary at age 7. Sadly, I don’t have her recipe, since she wrote down next to nothing, but this comes pretty damn close. And I DO remember what she said. And it wasn’t "damn".

We had this tonight with some goat cheese gnocchi made in big batches and frozen (yes, yes, the recipe will show up here sooner or later), and some simply cooked green beans from the last of this years’ garden. Mom would have loved this, especially since she didn’t have to swing a mallet.

Braciole Carlo
My husband, Chuck, aka "Carlo" adores braciole, so this is for you, hon.

4 servings

1 lb. top round beef, braciole-cut scallops in 4 pieces

8 oz. hot or sweet Italian style sausage, patties or casings removed

2 large garlic cloves, minced

1 large green onion (scallion) green and white part, minced

1/3 cup minced flat-leaf parsley

3 oz. stale bread, in fine crumbs

2 oz. Romano cheese, grated, Locatelli Romano preferred

¾ cup+ dry white wine

2 Tblsp extra virgin olive oil

Coarse ground black pepper to taste

4 toothpicks

Two quarts of basic tomato sauce or marinara* (see below)

Brown the sausage meat in a large non-stick sauté pan over medium heat, breaking up with a wooden spoon as it cooks.  You want to render the fat from the sausage a bit and brown it lightly. Next add the scallion and garlic and continue to stir until the green onion softens.

Use a nonstick pan for this, so you won't need to drown it all in oil.

Turn off the heat. Add the parsley, bread crumbs and the Romano. Mix gently to combine and absorb the oil from fat from the pan. Begin to add the wine, slowly, a bit at a time until the bread mixture can be molded easily, but there should be no excess juices seeping out. You may need a few extra tablespoons of wine. If you put in too much, turn on the heat under the pan and let some of the moisture steam away. Let cool away from the burner while you prepare the beef.

Place each beef scallop between two sheets of waxed paper, or in a leftover produce plastic bag (I save them for stuff like this) and hammer them out carefully to less than ¼” thick. Be careful not to make holes in the meat, although a few are inevitable and really don’t matter.  When you’ve done all four, lay them out lengthwise on a counter with one of the short ends towards you.

No swearing, yet.

Place one quarter of the bread crumb mixture on the wider of the short sides, covering about 1/3 of the meat, then roll up to the narrowest end, securing with a toothpick. If the filling comes out a bit, don’t worry, just push it back in.

Wipe out the same non-stick sauté pan, and heat the olive oil in it over medium-high heat. When it shimmers, add the braciole, and brown on all sides.

The braciole won't be perfectly browned, but do the best you can.

While the braciole is cooking, bring your tomato sauce to a simmer in a pan just wide enough to hold the bracciole without crowding. When the bracciole is browned, drop them into the tomato sauce or marinara sauce and braise at a simmer for about 2 to 2.5 hours until tender.

Serve with pasta, gnocchi or soft polenta and a green vegetable.

  

*Quick, Lazy Tomato Sauce

Heat 2 Tblsp of olive oil in a deep saucepan. Add two garlic cloves, minced. Add two 28 oz. cans of tomato puree, one 15- ounce can of diced tomatoes and a half cup of dry red or white wine. If you have tomato paste in a tube, add 3 Tblsp of that, too. If not, skip it.

Bring to a boil, and then reduce to a simmer. Add one heaping tablespoon each of dried basil and dried oregano. Add a small pinch of dried red pepper flakes, and add salt and fresh-ground black pepper to taste. I personally like a pinch of powdered cloves and a teaspoon of anchovy paste added, too, but that’s sort of a family thing.

Simmer for as long as you can, up to an hour, but 15 minutes will do. Makes about two quarts.

Braciole, with goat cheese gnocchi and homegrown beans!

Pork Chop Porchetta on Farinata: Another Grainless Wonder

Your Cousin Vinny is probably going to come after me. My Uncle Tony is probably rolling in his grave. Spinning.  There is nothing in the world more delicious than a really well-made Italian porchetta sandwich made with juicy, seasoned, braised pork shoulder on a really good crusty, hard roll. I make a really scrumptious porchetta, almost an Italian pulled pork, and we live near Carangi's suburban branch -- a great Philadelphia Italian bakery that has the perfect rolls. I have two problems, though.

First, my porchetta recipe makes an enormous amount of the luscious, juicy pork, so my family of two would be eating it for a couple of weeks, and my system can't handle a lot of wheat starch. But it's such a familiar comfort food that I had to find a way around those hurdles. Luckily, I have a half of a freezer full of pork chops from that whole pork loin I bought a few weeks ago and showed you how to cut up here, and there is another Italian specialty that I can eat ---farinata. Farinata is the Italian version of the French Socca. Both are basically thin, crisp-ish flatbreads made solely from chickpea flour, water and olive oil. No grain, no gluten, and deliciously and fabulously authentic. It's also speedy to prepare as long as you remember to make the thin batter ahead and let it stand. By seasoning the chops with traditional porchetta seasonings and  braising all day in my slow cooker, Chuck and I can have a really good porchetta dinner in less than 30 minutes from when I pull into the driveway. I think Vinny and Tony would scarf this version down, too.

Pork Chop Porchetta, ready to serve!

You can  use my Socca recipe here, without adding any of the toppings. Or to make a Farinata, here's a link to the blog Kalyn's Kitchen where you'll find great, easy instructions. I use a slightly smaller pan to bake it for this,  as I want it a bit breadier and less crisp so it will sop up the gorgeous pork juice and I leave out the rosemary as there is plenty in the meat. These are great gluten free recipes to have in your file even if you don't make porchetta.


Note: I make this in a slow cooker, but it can easily be made in a dutch oven, in the oven at 325ºF for 2-1/2 hours. Generally, most traditional recipes include sage, but since we aren't fond of it, we've always subbed thyme. And in this non-traditional version, which is really more like a porchetta pulled pork, I've used some roasted peppers, both for color and flavor, and because loin is far leaner than pork shoulder. Enjoy every bite!

The Pork Chop Porchetta seasonings ready to go.

Pork Chop Porchetta
Serves 6
2-1/2 lb. boneless pork loin or sirloin pork chops or loin chunks
1 T extra virgin olive oil
2T ground fennel seed
6 garlic cloves, pureed or crushed
2T fresh rosemary leaves
6-8 fresh thyme sprigs
3/4 cup dry white wine
fresh ground black pepper
kosher salt
1 cup roasted sweet red bell pepper, chopped coarsely

Slap on the slow cooker lid; when you get back, it's Porchetta for dinner...

Place the pork in the crock of the slow cooker and toss with the olive oil. Mix in the ground fennel, the pureed garlic, the rosemary and thyme. Add the wine, and grind some fresh black pepper over the top, and add a big pinch of kosher salt. Cover and cook on low for 9 hours. About 30 minutes before serving, stir in the roasted peppers.

Serve over farinata or socca, or in crusty rolls.

Meaty, Beefy Homemade Manicotti

In the oven...beefy, meaty manicotti!

The gods are confused. They gave us 80° sunny weather in March, and now, in May its 59° and gray- grim out. What gives? It is time to plant the tomato plants lingering in a tray on the patio, but the soil in the vegetable garden is too wet to dig into. The peppers should go in too, but it's just mud out there. Like it's April. Instead of wanting to eat Spring-ish, salad-y food, I want comfort food. Homey, delicious Italian stuff. Besides, we’ve had so much asparagus from the garden, I’m tired of it.


But I don't want any old thing. Something rich and delicious. Like homemade manicotti. The good kind made with those wonderful thin Italian egg crepes called "crespelle", not those fat old pasta tubes.  

It might be nearly Memorial Day, the unofficial start of Summer, but I need some solid, savory, warming food. Now. The gods are confused. 

Meaty, Beefy Homemade Manicotti

Note: I've switched up this recipe to use white whole wheat flour instead of regular AP flour, but if that's hard for you to find, just use all purpose. And if you like the baking / lasagna dish, it's from Sophie Conran for Portmeirion, and you can get one just like it here.

Serves 4

For the crespelle / manicotti (Italian crepes)

Makes 12, plus a couple of torn ones

1 cup white whole wheat flour (I prefer King Arthur)

1-1/2 cups whole milk

2 large eggs

½ teaspoon of kosher salt

Beat the milk, eggs and salt in a medium bowl with a whisk until combined. Add the flour and whisk until a thin batter forms and the lumps are gone. Cover the bowl with a plate or plastic wrap and set aside for an hour. (or refrigerate for up to 24 hours). Go start cooking the meat filling.

While the meat filling is cooking, make the manicotti / crespelle. Set out a heatproof plate and tear off a dozen or so sheets of wax paper to place between the cooked crepes. Stir the batter; it should not be as thick as pancake batter, but thinner like table cream. If it’s too thick, add water, a tablespoon at a time until it’s thin enough.

Heat a small 8” fry pan with a teaspoon or so of olive oil over medium - low heat. Ladle in a scan ¼ cup of batter, and lift and swirl the pan to spread the batter over the bottom as thin as a crepe. Let it cook until the top is no longer shiny, and then carefully remove from the pan, they may tear a bit as they are delicate, but save the torn ones as they can be used to patch up small tears in the whole ones. Stack as they are cooked with a sheet of waxed paper between them. Set aside until the casserole is ready to assemble.

  

For the beef filling:

1 T olive oil

1 lb. lean ground beef

1 small carrot, minced

1 small onion, minced

3 large garlic cloves minced

1 cup plain tomato sauce

1 cup whole milk

1 cup dry white wine

Black pepper

½ tsp nutmeg

½ cup Pecorino Romano (Locatelli) cheese

1 egg

In a broad 4-5 quart deep sauté pan, heat the olive oil over medium-high heat and brown the meat, breaking it up as it cooks. When it’s cooked but not yet brown, add the minced carrot, onion and garlic, lower the heat, and continue to sauté until the vegetables begin to soften and the meat is beginning to brown. Add the cup of tomato sauce, the milk and the wine. Bring to a simmer and let cook, stirring occasionally until most of the liquid is gone and you can mound the meat up in a pile with no sauce running out. Remove the meat to a mixing bowl, and let cool to room temperature. While it cooks, go make the crespelle / crepes/ manicotti. When the crespelle are finished, and the meat filling is cooled, stir in the egg and ½ cup of cheese, mixing thoroughly. Make the sauce.

For the Sauce:

4 cups plain tomato sauce or marinara

1 cup dry white wine or red wine

½ cup heavy cream

1 tsp each dried oregano and basil

1 cup coarsely shredded Fontina or Romano cheese (for topping)

Place all the ingredients except for the shredded Fontina or Romano in a 3 quart saucepan, bring to a simmer and cook 5 minutes.

Just place the meat on the lower third of the crepe
 and roll like a cigar into a manicotti.

To Assemble:

Lightly oil or spray a deep 9” x 13” baking dish. Preheat the oven to 350°F.  Place 1-1/2 cups of the prepared sauce in the bottom and spread evenly. Take a sheet of waxed paper and dump out the meat filling and pat it into a square. Cut the square into 12 squares with a knife. Or, if you have a good eye, just divide the contents of the bowl into 12 portions.

Lay a crespelle on the counter in front of you, and place one of the filling squares on it, spreading it out into a cylinder of meat filling across the third (see picture above) closest to you and roll up like a cigar, enclosing the meat in the crepe.

Pack them into the dish, and fit any extra along the sides.
Top with sauce and cheese and bake.

Place seam side down in the baking dish. Continue until all the meat and filling is gone. Pour the remaining sauce evenly over the rolled manicotti, covering them all. Sprinkle the shredded cheese evenly over the top and bake for about 50 minute to an hour until it’s all bubbly and the cheese is starting to brown on top.

Piccolo Italian-style Pulled Pork

I don’t know why, but so many delicious pork recipes call for a whole pork shoulder or pork butt. Both cuts are from the leg, not from what you or I refer to as butt. But regardless, those cuts are usually 5 to 7 pounds of meat, and while I like to freeze extra for days I’m too busy to cook (read that as lazy), that’s enough to feed an army and we’re a household of 2, or 2.5 if you count the dog.

This is called piccolo, because, well, you’re not cooking a whole pork butt or shoulder. No less delicious, and if you have a small household, you won’t have to eat it every day for a week. In our house this is 6 servings. We like to eat. This gives us one dinner and one night of leftovers with another two portions for the freezer.

Italian Piccolo Pulled Pork

6-8 servings

3-½ lbs boneless pork sirloin cut in 6 pieces

1 navel orange, preferably organic, sliced thin

1 medium yellow onion, sliced thin

2 Tblsp fennel seed

4 sprigs fresh rosemary, pulled from stem, rough chopped

6 cloves of garlic, smashed and rough chopped

2-3 bay leaves

Kosher salt, about a tablespoon

Coarse ground black pepper, about ½ to ¾ tsp

1-½ cups dry white wine

Brown gravy mix* for 1 cup of gravy

1 cup of white wine or chicken stock

Salt as needed

Place the pork in a big plastic zipper bag or a non- reactive bowl. Add everything except the gravy mix, and the last 1-1/2 cups of wine or stock, and toss well. Place in the refrigerator to marinate at least 6 hours or overnight.

About 4 hours before you plan to serve it, preheat your oven to 300°F. Place the pork and any accumulated juices in a Dutch oven or a casserole that can go on the stove and in the oven with a tight fitting lid, and place the covered pan into the oven. You don’t need to wait for the oven to reach temperature. Rearrange the meat every hour or so, keeping some orange pieces on top. It should be falling apart tender in about 3.5 hours.

Remove the pork from the oven. Remove the bay leaves from the meat discard. Mash the oranges into the meat and shred the meat with a fork or spoon. You can chill the pork at this point and continue a day or two later with the recipe just before serving.

Pour the white wine into the pork. Prepare the brown gravy according to package directions and add to the meat and juices in the Dutch oven. Bring to a boil over medium-high heat, stirring constantly. Place into the oven for ½ hour or until serving time.

* I use Simply Organic® since it doesn’t have anything “weird” in it. If you prefer, use 1 cup of jarred prepared, or your own, home-frozen or leftover. Chicken gravy works fine too, or 2T of flour slurry mixed into 1 cup cold water, simmered and add a spoon of beef or chicken base to it.

Makes a great pork sandwich, on a hard roll with provolone cheese and braised broccoli raab, or serve atop a mound of soft polenta, with a braised green on the side.

Rolling in Braciole

My mom stayed home when I was a kid, and depending on her mood, there’d occasionally be some sort of Italian extravaganza of pasta and meats and sauce for dinner.  My dad and I loved it. A favorite was braciole and rigatoni. The first time I ever heard my mother swear was while she was flattening the beef for braciole and dropped the mallet on her bare toes. It added greatly to my vocabulary at age 7. Sadly, I don’t have her recipe, since she wrote down next to nothing, but this comes pretty damn close. And I DO remember what she said. And it wasn’t damn.

 

We had this tonight with some goat cheese gnocchi made in big batches and frozen (yes, yes, the recipe will show up here sooner or later), and some simply cooked green beans from the last of this years’ garden. Mom would have loved this, especially since she didn’t have to swing a mallet.

Braciole Carlo
My husband, Chuck, aka "Carlo" adores braciole, so this is for you, hon.

4 servings

1 lb. top round beef, braciole-cut scallops in 4 pieces

8 oz. hot or sweet Italian style sausage, patties or casings removed

2 large garlic cloves, minced

1 large green onion (scallion) green and white part, minced

1/3 cup minced flat-leaf parsley

3 oz. stale bread, in fine crumbs

2 oz. Romano cheese, grated, Locatelli Romano preferred

¾ cup+ dry white wine

2 Tblsp extra virgin olive oil

Coarse ground black pepper to taste

4 toothpicks

Two quarts of basic tomato sauce or marinara* (see below)

Brown the sausage meat in a large non-stick sauté pan over medium heat, breaking up with a wooden spoon as it cooks.  You want to render the fat from the sausage a bit and brown it lightly. Next add the scallion and garlic and continue to stir until the green onion softens.

Use a nonstick pan for this, so you won't need to drown it all in oil.

Turn off the heat. Add the parsley, bread crumbs and the Romano. Mix gently to combine and absorb the oil from fat from the pan. Begin to add the wine, slowly, a bit at a time until the bread mixture can be molded easily, but there should be no excess juices seeping out. You may need a few extra tablespoons of wine. If you put in too much, turn on the heat under the pan and let some of the moisture steam away. Let cool away from the burner while you prepare the beef.

Place each beef scallop between two sheets of waxed paper, or in a leftover produce plastic bag (I save them for stuff like this) and hammer them out carefully to less than ¼” thick. Be careful not to make holes in the meat, although a few are inevitable and really don’t matter.  When you’ve done all four, lay them out lengthwise on a counter with one of the short ends towards you.

No swearing, yet.

Place one quarter of the bread crumb mixture on the wider of the short sides, covering about 1/3 of the meat, then roll up to the narrowest end, securing with a toothpick. If the filling comes out a bit, don’t worry, just push it back in.

Wipe out the same non-stick sauté pan, and heat the olive oil in it over medium-high heat. When it shimmers, add the braciole, and brown on all sides.

The braciole won't be perfectly browned, but do the best you can.

While the braciole is cooking, bring your tomato sauce to a simmer in a pan just wide enough to hold the bracciole without crowding. When the bracciole is browned, drop them into the tomato sauce or marinara sauce and braise at a simmer for about 2 to 2.5 hours until tender.

Serve with pasta, gnocchi or soft polenta and a green vegetable.

  

*Quick, Lazy Tomato Sauce

Heat 2 Tblsp of olive oil in a deep saucepan. Add two garlic cloves, minced. Add two 28 oz. cans of tomato puree, one 15- ounce can of diced tomatoes and a half cup of dry red or white wine. If you have tomato paste in a tube, add 3 Tblsp of that, too. If not, skip it.

Bring to a boil, and then reduce to a simmer. Add one heaping tablespoon each of dried basil and dried oregano. Add a small pinch of dried red pepper flakes, and add salt and fresh-ground black pepper to taste. I personally like a pinch of powdered cloves and a teaspoon of anchovy paste added, too, but that’s sort of a family thing.

Simmer for as long as you can, up to an hour, but 15 minutes will do. Makes about two quarts.

Braciole, with goat cheese gnocchi and homegrown beans!