(Photo by paPisc/CC BY-SA 2.0)
My family and friends can attest to my “addiction” to social media. While not a social influencer by any stretch, I enjoy posting photos of nature, hikes with family and food that I created with my own two hands. I also enjoy a good story or two from news outlets, especially from our very own Anton Media. The practice of reading news and happenings online has become a daily habit in the lives of most folks globally.
After viewing countless videos, memes and photographs online, I realized that it might be time to read something of substance. While catching up with friends and family via photographs is very enjoyable, a good read can sometimes be exactly what the doctor ordered. Post-holiday letdown can be a bit of a drag if you catch my meaning.
A vlog link appeared on a friend’s page, just as I was thinking about family. He and his lady friend began a YouTube cooking channel a while back, which was both homey and adorable at once. They discussed the importance of serving Italian braciole on Christmas Day. Suddenly, I was transported back to my childhood, smack dab into the middle of my Neapolitan grandmother’s East Islip kitchen.
Nana often made braciole on special occasions, mainly because she was on a limited budget and needed to feed at least 25 hungry family members at a time. Her mega-sauce pot that perched atop the small blue flame of her stove bubbled feverishly with meatballs and chunks of boneless chicken. Here and there, thoroughly pounded and neatly wrapped pork and beef braciole peeked up through the thick red liquid. Her sauce cooked for hours, so a knife was never needed to slice her well-stuffed rolls of meat.
Garlic, parsley and fresh basil all met in the middle of the roll with tasty Romano cheese. Nana never used Parmesan cheese, so the richness of freshly grated Romano cheese chunks was a wonderful treat. I learned to love the beef braciole exclusively, especially because the pork seemed to have a thin casing or skin on it that kind of nauseated me.
Flash forward to family dinners out with my father-in-law, who passed away in 2017. Pop loved Italian food and a good steak, and often called us on a whim to “go get something to eat.” He enjoyed Boulder Creek, Outback and The Spare Rib with gusto and always ordered a ribeye steak or prime rib. If we went Italian, the very first question he would ask the waitress was, “Do you have any braciole?” Any restaurant that did not offer it was stricken from our list of frequented restaurants. It also garnered him the nickname, “Mr. Braciole.” (Note: the pronunciation he used was “brah-ZHOLE”.)
During a meal plan for a family get-together at our home, I told my husband that I was going to try to make Nana’s braciole for Pop. Hubby grinned and said, “It better be good, because you know how picky he is.” I took this as a challenge, headed to ShopRite, and purchased a package of very thin steaks that were labeled “for braciole”.
(Photo by 10Rosso/CC BY 2.0)
As I surveyed my purchase, I realized that I would need a great deal of string to tie the steaks together. I had no idea that flank steak was the preferred cut of beef for the recipe, as I had relied on memory of Nana’s small pockets of beef, neatly tied with a bow. As I pounded the steak with a wooden meat tenderizer, I glanced down to find that the head had flown off and was now sitting in the middle of the pot of sauce. I placed the mixture of garlic, cheese, parsley and basil in the center of the steaks, wrapped them as tightly as I could, tossed them into the sauce, said a silent prayer and hoped for the best.
Hours later, as I fished what was left of those little steaks out of the simmered sauce, my heart sank. Half of each steak was intact, while the other halves were swimming with the meatballs. I served them, and nobody said a word. Until my father-in-law mentioned, “Not much to look at, daughter-in-law. But they’re tasty.” Since that fateful day, Hubby made the braciole for dinners with family. Not one of his “exploded” in the sauce.
When my father-in-law’s health began to fail, Hubby often cooked up a batch of braciole to bring to his dad. The token was always met with my father-in-law’s great smile, and we both knew the effort had been appreciated. Months after he passed away, we found a small Tupperware in the back of the freezer as we cleaned it out, marked “Pop’s braciole”. Months later, Hubby enjoyed the bittersweet memory of making his father a tasty beef treat while he ate that last morsel.
Braciole is something that is usually reserved for special occasions, like holidays and birthdays. If you plan to make it, a flank steak is necessary to prevent an “explosion of meat” in your sauce. Make a “paste” out of breadcrumbs, parmesan cheese, chopped parsley, minced garlic, salt and pepper and spread it out on the beef. Roll it up like a jelly roll and tie it with a bit of twine. Brown the meat in a pan and add to an existing tomato sauce. Cook for at least two hours until soft, remove from the sauce and place on a plate. Remove the string, slice the flank steak “roll”, and serve on a platter with some tomato sauce drizzled atop it. Buona fortuna e buon mangiare. (Good luck and happy eating.)
Patty Servidio is an Anton Media Group columnist.
