Braciola

Last week we had braciola for dinner. It is pronounced 'brah-cho-leh.'  According to Wikipedia, braciola is the name of an Italian dish that contains slices of beef pan-fried in their own juices, tomato sauce, or in a small amount of olive oil. 

I have never heard of braciola until watching an episode of Everybody Loves Raymond. I often watch this on Instant Netflix. The episode centered around Debra's braciola. She is often known as a terrible cook. However, she seemed to cook a perfect braciola that everyone loved. After watching this episode, Nick googled the dish, and I decided to give it a try. 

I used this recipe. It is from Giada De Laurentiis, and she has a video to go along with the recipe. 

This recipe includes simple ingredients. I had almost everything except the meat, parsley, some cheese, and wine. 

 After prepping the filling, you might need your husband's help. 

He helped me roll the meat. A lot of the filling may fall out, but don't worry, there is still plenty in the dish.

You will also need some kitchen twine. 

This was easier to tie with two people. Make sure to tie as tight as you can so that the meat won't unroll and let any more filling out. 

If you are lucky you will also have a cute tiny helper in the background, who was begging to help the entire time. 

Our final product was delicious. However, the meat wasn't as tender as it should have been. I think we should have cooked it longer on the stove and in the oven. 

Since I'm not drinking wine right now, and Nick doesn't like white wine, I bought this fancy box of wine for the dish. I only needed a cup, and I hated to waste a whole bottle for one cup. I also thought the wine was too important to the sauce to leave out. 

I did end up tasting the wine. It wasn't too bad if you added an ice cube to it.

You can make your own marinara sauce, but Giada said it was ok to use the stuff from a jar. So that's what we did. 

After adding all the sauce, it sits in the oven for an hour and a half. Again, I think it could have cooked a little longer. 

Grab your husband again, and ask him to slice the meat so you can photograph it because he is better at it. 

Also ask him to make sure and get all the strings off the meat. 

We served it with pasta, because when I think of an Italian dish with red sauce I automatically think of pasta. However, Wikipedia said to serve it with salad and potatoes. That would probably be good too. Our version was delicious, and I will be trying this dish again soon.