Braciole in tomato sauce, with gnocchi sorrentino.

Braciole are little rolled up bundles of beef with a filling, braised in a tomato sauce, served with gnocchi.  The recipe came from a cooking class by Kevin Isaacson, the executive chef at the Caltech Athenaeum.

You start with some fairly inexpensive meat - you're going to pound it out thin, which breaks down the toughness, and besides, it's going to cook for a couple hours. I started with top round roast, since I was looking for a piece of meat that could be sliced into uniform shaped slices about 3/8"-1/2" thick.  You don't want too tender a cut, because it will fall apart - this is not the dish to use up those spare filet mignon tournedos. Next time, I'll trim the pieces to be more uniform in outline.

There's also all the fillings: crushed garlic, parsley, pine nuts, raisins soaked in port, and the things you'll need to make the sauce: thyme, rosemary, sliced onions, tomatoes and wine. Note the glass to test the wine and make sure it's not gone bad.

You pound the meat out to less than half the original thickness - oil, a heavy duty plastic bag, and the hammer.  After it's thin, it's smeared with a crushed garlic and sprinkled with chopped parsley

Then, you lay a strip of prosciutto (or jamon serrano) over the meat. I suppose you could use thin sliced bacon. Finally, a filling of toasted pine-nuts and raisins, and you're ready to roll them up.

It's kind of like rolling a burrito, then tying it up with twine.



They're ready to brown in the heated pan with some oil.  Brown all the sides and ends, then pull them out and set them aside.
  

Add some more olive oil if needed, and caramelize those onions.  About 30 seconds before the onions are done, add thin garlic slices.  The usual "heat until fragrant but don't burn the garlic" and dump in the tomatoes, wine, and other ingredients. I added some sliced mushrooms, as well as all the herbs, and some more pine nuts and raisins.


This goes in the oven, covered with the rolled up beef and you cook it for a couple hours.  Extract the bracioles and blend the sauce.
 

Remove the twine, cut the braciole in half, put it on a plate with some freshly cooked gnocchi, sauce, and melted cheese. I added some glazed carrots as another vegetable.  Had I been thinking, I would have bought some green beans or asparagus if only for a color contrast. But you cook what you have in the refrigerator.



It's a bit time consuming, but fun, and there's a 2 hour pause in the middle while it braises.