Thank you to Honest Cooking and Parma Ham for sponsoring this post!
I’ve brought you something extra special today! A delicious, traditional dish from Italy with a combination of flavors that will make your taste buds sing!
Proscuitto is wonderfully versatile in entrees, appetizers and hors d’oeuvres. It’s featured in today’s dish, Braciole di Manzo, as a central part of the filling. It adds a flavor dimension to this traditional Italian dish that is out of this world delicious. The flavor of the prosciuotto is not only infused into the slow-simmered beef, its flavor is melded into the tomato sauce which forms the base for the accompanying pasta dish. Though this dish is enjoyed throughout the year, it is especially befitting the holiday season.
First, what is Parma ham? Is it different than prosciutto? The art of curing ham dates as far back as 100 BC near the town of Parma, Italy and there are many brands of prosciutto available on the market today, with varying degrees of quality. But only one kind can legally be called “Parma ham.” By law Prosciutto di Parma can only be made in region of Parma, Italy. This region has unique conditions that enable the meat to dry in such a way that it produces the highest quality hams. In order for it to be called Parma ham, it must conform to a very strict set of standards and specifications. Among other factors, Parma ham must be cured for at least 12 months, usually for closer to 2 years. This year Parma ham is celebrating its 50th anniversary since the Parma Ham Consortium came together in 1963 to establish these standards for their proscuitto.
My first encounter with Parma ham was in England when I was 18 years old. While going to college, I worked as the manager of a delicatessen. I was always excited to order and try new products. One such product: Parma ham. I had never heard of it up until that point. It was the most expensive item on the list by far and I was curious. So I ordered one and when it arrived I opened the box, anxious to see what it was. I raised an eyebrow as I pulled out a huge, heavy pig’s leg, skin intact with a few stray coarse hairs still in place. I put it out for display in the deli case and soon had customers asking for it, sliced extra thin. I got quite the workout hoisting that thing on the meat slicer and lugging it in and out of the deli case. It took a few days before I finally shaved off an extra slice to try. And when I did I realized it was something special. I often put out samples of it, wrapped around fresh melon, and they never lasted long. I wish now I had sampled more freebie slices while I had the chance!
On to the Braciole di Manzo!
“Braciole” is the term used here among American Italians. This same dish in Italy is known as Involtini di Manzo, involtini meaning “little bundles,” the more accurate name for it. But we’ll refer to this dish by the name it’s more commonly known as over here in the U.S.. While at first appearance this dish may look a little time-consuming, it really isn’t. The rolls can be made a day ahead and then simply browned and added to the sauce to simmer. And as for the 3 hours of slow simmering – it doesn’t need to be stirred, so you can let it do its thing undisturbed while you do yours.
Bracioles, usually beef (but can also be pork or chicken) can consist of a variety of fillings, most commonly some kind of combination of bread crumbs, herbs, garlic, and sometimes cheese or pancetta. This version also includes pine nuts and raisins, two kinds of cheese, and instead of pancetta uses this delicious prosciutto. These flavor combinations meld together beautifully. The tender, juicy stuffed beef rolls are exquisite and the slow-simmered tomato sauce is worthy of taking center stage in its own right.
Note: The long simmering process isn’t an absolute requirement, but the old-fashioned way is to slow simmer it like in making a ragù. This yields the most flavor, allowing the juices from the meat and the filling to mingle with the tomato sauce, making a wonderful sauce for the pasta.
I had a lot of fun making these bracioles. I hadn’t listened to Eros Ramazzotti in quite a while so I cranked up my Italian music for added inspiration while preparing this dish. (If you’re not familiar with Ramazzotti, my two favorite songs of his are Fuoco Nel Fuoco and Emiozione Per Sempre. The latter song comes from the last album I purchased in Europe before moving to the U.S.. In fact, there I was in the kitchen getting misty-eyed to song that’s not remotely a misty-eyed kind of song! I know it’s silly, but these songs brought on a wave of nostalgia and I can’t help it – I’m hopelessly sentimental.) And of course I had to throw some Mario Lanza and Rocco Granata in there too just for a little old school Italian touch.
Okay, pass the proscuitto and let’s get started!
Let’s take a look at the different ingredients that go into making this special dish:
You’ll need a few thin cuts of lean beef (usually top or bottom round roast). There’s really no right or wrong in terms of what size to get. If you’re serving 4 people, you can either assemble 4 medium-sized braciole’s or 8 small ones.
Part of the filling consists of pine nuts, raisins, breadcrumbs, Parmesan cheese and herbs.
And then there’s the crowning touch – the prosciutto. And we’re going to add some tangy Provolone cheese to the filling as well.
The sauce is going to consist of tomatoes, garlic, onions, extra virgin olive oil, and fresh herbs.
…and of course a glass of red wine.
And there you have it! The beautiful, fresh ingredients that go into making this fabulous, authentic Italian dish!
Okay, let’s make Braciole!
Pound the meat to about 1/4 inch thickness between two pieces of plastic wrap – use the flat side of a meat pounder. Sprinkle with salt and freshly ground pepper.
Combine the milk-soaked breadcrumbs, Parmesan cheese, parsley, rosemary, garlic, pine nuts, and raisins in a small bowl.
Crush the tomatoes in a large bowl with your hand, discarding the hard cores. Set aside.
Lay a piece of prosciutto on top of the slice of beef, followed by a slice of Provolone, then place a tablespoon or so of the filling (depending on what size of beef rolls you’re making) in the center.
Fold in the sides of the roll, lengthwise, fold in one end…
Then roll it up, starting at the non-folded in end, pushing and wrapping it tightly.
To secure the rolls, you can use toothpicks or, like I did here, wrap them “gift package” style with some thread. Just remember to remove it, or the toothpicks, before serving!
Heat the olive oil in a Dutch oven (I use and love Lodge) over medium-high heat. Add the rolls, seam side down to seal them.
Generously brown the rolls on all sides. The browning is essential to adding flavor. And don’t discard the burnt browned bits on the bottom of the pan! Also essential to flavor.
Transfer the rolls to a plate and set aside. Saute the onions and garlic until soft and translucent, about 5 minutes.
Add the red wine and bring to a boil, cooking until the wine is mostly evaporated, about 3-4 minutes, deglazing the pan (scraping up the browned bits from the bottom of the pan).
Add the crushed tomatoes, salt and freshly ground pepper. Simmer for 3 minutes.
Return the beef rolls.
Add just enough water to cover the rolls so they are submerged. Bring to a boil, reduce the heat to low, cover, and simmer for about 3 hours or until fork tender.
Mmmm, the aroma when you finally open the pot! Add the fresh basil and parsley and simmer for another 2 minutes.
Add salt and pepper to taste. You’re masterpiece is done!
Enjoy!
Traditionally, the braciole are served as the second course (along with a leafy green salad, for example), and the first course is pasta tossed with the delicious tomato sauce. Serve it all together or separately – however you prefer.
- 1 pound beef top round cut into 4 thin slices, about ¼ inch thick
- Salt and freshly ground black pepper
- 3 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
- 4 slices prosciutto ham
- 2 slices Provolone cheese, cut in half
- For the Filling:
- ½ cup fresh breadcrumbs combined with 2 tablespoons milk (soak for at least 20 minutes)
- 2 tablespoons grated Parmesan cheese
- 2 tablespoons pine nuts
- 2 tablespoons raisins
- 2 cloves garlic, minced
- 1 tablespoons fresh parsley, chopped
- 1 teaspoon fresh rosemary, chopped
- For the Tomato Sauce:
- 1 medium yellow onion, chopped
- 1 clove garlic, minced
- ½ cup dry red wine (such as pinot noir)
- 1 (28 oz) can stewed tomatoes, crushed with your hands in a bowl, discarding the hard cores
- 1 teaspoon salt
- ¼ teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
- 1 tablespoon fresh parsley, chopped
- 2 tablespoon fresh basil, chopped
- Basil leaves, torn, for garnish
- For the Filling: Combine all ingredients in a small bowl.
- Pound the beef slices until they're about ¼ inch thick. Sprinkle with salt and pepper. Lay a slice of Parma ham on each slice of beef, followed by ½ slice of Provolone and then place 2 tablespoons of the filling in the center. Slightly fold in the sides of the beef, lengthwise, fold one of the ends in, then starting with the other end roll up the slices of beef, pressing firmly so that's it's good and tight. Secure either with toothpicks or wrap the rolls "gift package" style with some thread. (Remember to remove them before serving!)
- Heat the olive oil in a Dutch oven over medium-high heat. Add the beef rolls, seam side down to seal the rolls. Generously brown the beef on all sides. Transfer the rolls to a plate and set aside.
- Add the onions and garlic to the Dutch oven and saute until they're soft and translucent, about 5 minutes. Add the red wine and bring to a boil, cooking until most of the wine is evaporated, about 3-4 minutes, deglazing the bottom of the pan.
- Add the crushed tomatoes, salt and pepper. Bring to a boil and simmer for 2 minutes. Return the beef rolls and add just enough water to the pot until the beef rolls are submerged and covered. Return to a boil, reduce the heat to low, cover, and simmer for about 3 hours or until fork tender.
- Add the parsley and basil and simmer for another 2 minutes. Add salt and pepper to taste.
- To serve traditional-style, boil some pasta and serve with the sauce either as a first course, followed by the beef rolls and a leafy green salad.
Soooo excited to make this!!! I’ve been looking for a good braciole recipe! I think I’ll have to make it for the family at Christmas 🙂 Thanks for posting!
Hi, Celeste! I’m excited that you’re excited! My family really enjoyed these. I served them traditional style along with pasta tossed in the tomato sauce – the tomato sauce, with all those flavors melded into it, is amazing!
These look amazing – and so husband-friendly! ( Sometimes I feel like he’s only going through the motions of dinner unless there’s a big chunk of beef involved 😉 ). Can’t wait to give this a try.
Haha! Oh, isn’t that so typical, though? Thanks for the compliment, Melissa, and for visiting. Now I guess you’d better go and give the man his beef! 🙂
Omg I came across this reciepe after watching everyone loves Raymond lol when she cooks a version of this. It is cooking away as I type, it is amazing so far! My partner can’t wait till it’s finished, it smells great. Love your reciepe, the pictures helped heaps, I’ll keep you posted how I go!
That’s wonderful, Rebecca! 🙂 So glad you’re happy with it so far and yes, please keep up posted!
Hey Kim had to let you know how I went 🙂 it was great and everyone loved it, and I didn’t stuff it up so anyone can do it lol definitely will cook it again! Thank you for the recipe
Wonderful! So glad it was a success, Rebecca! 🙂
wow!! I have been making braciole for 30 + years but always knew something was missing. I think these are the ones my grandmother use to make. Can’t wait to make and serve them this Christmas.
Fantastic! Please let us know how they turn out!
Hi Kim, I’m going to make this tomorrow, it looks great. I’ve had this recently in Rome at a friends house and his mom made it with pork and added olives into the stuffing and it was served with a brown sauce, it was delicious. I’m not going to use the raisins, questionable kids tastes and, potentially, reactions so i’m going to just skip those. I’ll let you know how it goes.
Fantstic, Robert! Yes, please let us know what you think. There are so many variations of Braciole. I like the sound of the pork version you described with the olive stuffing and sauce – sounds delicious!
Hi Kimberly. I have made this twice now. Once with flank steak ad once with top round. It has really great flavor but the meat tasted dry, stringy, and overcooked both times. Other recipes I have seen call for 1 hour cooking time in the sauce. Is it really 3 hours? Thanks. I love your site and your pictures.
Hi Beth, I appreciate the feedback and appreciate the compliment. Dry and stringy doesn’t sound good at all, and that has not been my experience. I did an online search just now to see what other recipes recommend. They vary from everything between 1 hour to 3 hours (for example, one Food Network recipe recommending 1 1/2 hours, Saveur recommending 2 hours, and an Italian website recommending 3). And some call for just 1 hour. I would simply recommend checking it after 90 minutes and determine if the beef is the desired consistency at that point. If not, let it simmer longer.
Hi! Your recipe looked very good so I am cookingit now on the stove. I liked the idea of raisins pignoli nuts in it. I’ll let you know how. Ot comes out. Thanks for the recipe.
Thanks, Mary! Do let us know how it turned out!
This brasciole came out wonderful and delicious. The sauce or gravy was so good. I think it is the best Brasciole I have ever made. Cooked for 2 hours and it was perfect. Not dry at all. I have some leftover sauce which I am going to use tonight on pan fried pork chops done Milanese style. Served with left over pennne. Thanks again for posting this recipe!
Mary, I am so thrilled to hear that!! Thanks so much for your detailed feedback! Best, Kimberly
Hello,
I used your recipe and it took me about two hours to prepare. Please keep in mind that I’m an avid chef. I tried the braciole at about an 1:45 in and it tasted perfect. But I wanted to follow the recipe as it had great reviews so I left it in for 3 hours. The meat was extremely dry and inedible. I used top round beef and left it on simmer the entire time. Can you please tell me why you would write simmer for 3 hours? It’s steak. Steak takes 10 minutes to cook. I would understand if you didn’t suggest to sear it but why would you write to simmer for 3 hours? Please let me know.
Hi Karen, thanks for your feedback. Don’t base the cook time on the premise that it’s a steak. If it we were cooking it like we would a steak then even 90 minutes would be 80 minutes too long. Most of the emails I’ve received from readers who have made this recipe have reported that around 3 hours was perfect (and that’s with the heat being on the lowest setting, which is what it should be). One comment reflected the same experience as yours with the meat being dry. Here’s how I responded to that comment: “I did an online search just now to see what other recipes recommend. They vary from everything between 1 hour to 3 hours (for example, one Food Network recipe recommending 1 1/2 hours, Saveur recommending 2 hours, and an Italian website recommending 3). And some call for just 1 hour. I would simply recommend checking it after 90 minutes and determine if the beef is the desired consistency at that point. If not, let it simmer longer.” You did the right thing in checking it around that time and found it to be perfect.
I’m from Napoli and we do call it braciole
Thanks for the input, Carlo.
This the same recipe my mother was taught by her mother. It is my favorite Italian dish. My parents are first generation Italian Americans and both are excellent cooks. I also cook, and did so for 8 years in the Marine Corps
It’s such a wonderful dish, Chris. The Marine Corps was sure lucky to have you those 8 years! 🙂
First time I have viewed your website, I am anxious to try your recipe for braciole.
Thank you, Alice, I’m so happy you found us!
Made this last night. It was excellent. I see why everyone on Raymond was going crazy for it! I did substitute slivered Almonds for the pine nuts as I was to cheap to spend 7 dollars for the pine nuts.
That’s wonderful, Don, I’m so happy to hear that! And I hear you on the pine nuts – it’s painful spending that much on something so small! 🙂
Tried acouple different recipes (this1 closest to my family recipe) Excellente’!! & walks you through the whole process too!! Monja!!!
I’m so glad you enjoyed it, thank you!
The trick to that tastiness must lie in the slow cooking because that’s too good looking to be true but don’t think I’m not making it tomorrow
My dad was from Abruzzo,my mom from Calabrian parents. Both families were excellent cooks. I liked mom’s sauce better,but dad was the king of meat dishes (also was a butcher). I couldn’t appreciate the labor that went into the processes,but the passione’was in the taste!
You’re so right about various versions of bracciole stuffings. I hate raisins,and what kid liked spinach so that was left out. However, our variations included,hard boiled egg mixed in with breadcrumbs,fresh basil and parsley,and to substitute for spinach,we used fresh dandelion greens.(my duty to pick since I was the “picky” eater). Or sometimes escarole or endive as a switch for the heck of it. Dad also used ground chuck and/ or ground sausage in with the breadcrumbs,and the cheese was mozzarella mixed with grated romano, or chunk provolone and fontina. Oh, and for the cut of meat, beef wise it was tenderloin (my fave),top or bottom round. Pork bracciole required the tenderloin. Then came the ultimate….VEAL bracciole, which you couldn’t give veal away in the 70s,so dad got it cheap. Stuffing stayed the same for each meat though.
Sauce was always made from our own garden tomatoes,which us kids had to help plant,maintain,weed,and finally pick. Nonna and mom cooked the sauce and “canned” it for the winter. Dad and grampa built a hand powered crusher/sieve for the tomatoes… guess who turned the crank? It looked fun as a kid, and today I still use it to make wine from fresh grapes. I’m turning 50 this year and truly miss my family members, but meals like these bring their memories back to the table every time!! God Bless, and thanks for the recipe.
Thanks so much for sharing, Gerry! I love what a family effort cooking was for you growing up, everyone contributing to the final meal in different ways – such precious memories.
Kim, just came across your site today. It’s very well done. I made braciole for the first time recently (having been mesmerized by the ever-popular “Raymond” episode that seems to inspire a lot of people to try it! ) The recipe I found used mozzarella with the prosciutto—it was good, but I want to try yours next, using provolone. Sounds like it would have a bit more zing. My main question, though: is it a good or bad thing to make the braciole the day before serving to guests? I’m thinking that letting it sit in the sauce may make it more tender? Or am I off on that?
Hi Kevin, I’m so glad you found us – welcome! 🙂 If you need to make it ahead you can, but it won’t really make the meat more tender.
Hi. My husband doesn’t like raisins. Can I omit them? Would he even notice them if I leave them in? Thanks!
Hi Karen, I doubt he would notice them flavor-wise, but he may be able to detect them by appearance if they haven’t completely dissolved. Yes, you can simply omit them.
We just watched the “Raymond” episode again and want to make this! Could it be transfered to a slow cooker instead of simmering on the stove? If so, how long and which heat setting?
How fun, Carol! Yes, you can transfer it to a slow cooker after browning the rolls. I’d probably aim for 4-5 hours on low and check it around the 4-hour mark to see if it’s fork-tender.