- What up, you guys? Chef Billy Parisi here
from BillyParisi.com, and today, I'm gonna be making
an incredibly classic dish known as braciole.
(upbeat EDM music) Say it with me, braciole. Boy, when researching braciole, has it caused a ton of
questions to come up, because it seems like
it's more American-Italian than it is just Italian. Really, braciole as we know it in America is something called involtini in Italy. That's stuffed roulade braised
in a nice tomato sauce. Braciole in Italy is
like a breaded pork steak or actual breaded steak that's pan-seared and served up or cooked in a tomato sauce. Kind of similar, but honestly, when you look at it, it's different. I'm not sure what happened when involtini made it to America and the word got changed into
braciole, I have no idea. Plus, there are so many
different versions online. I've seen top round steak
used, flank steak used, stuffed with pine nuts,
stuffed with raisins, stuffed with herbs, I've seen
a ton of different things when making an American-Italian braciole. So, I really just wanted
to give my take on it because you know I've been
doing a ton of research lately, and the word that keeps
coming up is simple. What's available, how can
I make this taste good? So, this version of braciole
is gonna be incredibly simple and it's my take on what I would believe to be incredibly authentic. To start, we're going to
prepare our tomato sauce. So, go ahead and add some
San Marzano tomatoes right to your blender. San Marzano are those delicious,
whole peeled tomatoes. These are imported from Italy. San Marzano is a small town near Naples. Really is gonna add a ton
of flavor to this dish, and we're gonna keep it incredibly simple. Because after they are blended up, we're just going over to a cooktop, and in a medium-sized pot, go ahead and pour those
blended tomatoes up. We want it to be pretty smooth. We finish it off with a
little bit of sea salt, cracked black pepper. We're simply gonna cook it over low heat and let those indigenous
San Marzano tomato flavors do the magic. While they are cooking, let's
go ahead and go back over to your cutting board on the countertop, and we have a nice piece
of top round sirloin. I'm gonna use this instead of flank steak. I feel like you could use either. Again, it's about what was available, and what did they have access to as far as money is concerned as well? So, I went with top sirloin. I feel like this is gonna be a great cut, and it's classically what is used as well. What we wanna do is slice
these up pretty thin. I'm just gonna set them
to the side on a plate, because what I wanna
do is pound these out. So, go ahead and line
up your cutting board with some plastic wrap. Let's add one of those
thinly-sliced top round steak filets right to the center. Fold over the plastic wrap,
you could also do this in a plastic baggie if you want, and pound it out pretty thin
'til it's about a quarter of an inch thick. Once it is to this
consistency, what I like to do is sort of lay them out
on some parchment paper and layer them up maybe three or four pounded-out steaks per sheet until they are completely done. Let's go ahead and set that to the side because we wanna make the stuffing. Let's pause here because I wanna go back to what I said earlier. This is my take on a braciole because, again, simplicity here. I've seen a ton of different stuffings, but I'm gonna go back to what I know. Italians love bread, they
love different ways to use it, whether it's a panzanella salad or in a Milanese, million-ese? Milanese, and what
we're gonna do is use up that old bread 'cause
we've got breadcrumbs here. So, go ahead and add those in. Next, we're gonna hit it
with some Parmesan cheese. Hit it with some parsley. We're gonna add in some
finely-minced garlic. Season it with sea salt
and cracked black pepper. And now, we wanna
drizzle in some olive oil because we want this to
be sort of like a paste. So, go ahead and mix it
together using a spoon. And once it becomes sort
of a little bit thick and pasty-like, what we
wanna do is sort of stuff up the steak filets. Of course, we're gonna
season the pounded-out steak with a little bit of salt and pepper. Next, we're gonna add some of that breadcrumb/Parmesan cheese
mixture right to the top, a few tablespoons, and what we wanna do is sort of pat it down, get all those great flavors
infused right to the steak, and cover as much
surface area as possible. And at this point, simply roll it up, starting from one end to the other until it becomes like a roulade. That's really where
this recipe comes from. Like, just a roulade, roll it up. Set it to the side on a sheet tray lined with parchment paper. What we wanna do is take
some butcher's twine and simply tie this up. One little knot, that's
all we're gonna do. These aren't overly huge. We just wanna make sure
that all that stuffing stays in the inside, so give
it a little double-knot, clip it off with your scissors. Boom, we're done. Season it up with salt and pepper. I like to have each
phase properly seasoned so the final product is
absolutely delicious. Head over to the cooktop,
I've got a large rondeau pot. If you don't have one of these, feel free to use a large frying pan. We're gonna add in some olive
oil, and on medium heat, add in the little braciole
roulades one at a time. And the goal here is to get
them golden-brown on each side, so think two to three minutes
per side until golden-brown. At this point, if you want, you can hit it with a little bit of white or red wine. This is just gonna help add
a little bit more flavor. This may or may not be
classic, it's hard to nail down whether or not this would be
part of the original recipe. Let's go ahead and add
in that tomato sauce that's been cooking on
low heat this entire time. It smells amazing in here. The goal here now is to braise
over low heat for one hour, so go ahead and add a lid to it, and we're gonna let them cook. It smells amazing in here. You take the top off, all those
wonderful smells come out. Looks incredible. Go back over to your countertop. Remember to remove the butcher's twine. That would be a terrible
mistake to serve this up with that still on it. Your guests will probably
not be too pleased with that. And to serve them up, I like
to just have some tomato sauce on the serving dish, and I just add some of those whole steak braciole
roulades right to the top. To finish it off, we're gonna hit it with a little bit more
grated Parmesan cheese and some fresh chopped parsley. Oh man, this looks absolutely incredible and the smells in this
place are to die for. Fairly pretty easy recipe to make that, honestly, it's great for weekdays, it's great to serve up to
your guests on the weekends. It's classic. Few ingredients, that's always
what makes these recipes so classic and so delicious. Let's not wait any
longer, let's try it out. Whoa. I've got too much going on
here, too much tomat-er. Tomat-er sauce. Oh my gosh. (laughs) Dude, that is so good. That's all I can say, it's delicious, ooh. The stuffing adds so much flavor. I'm not gonna waste any more
time because you can see, I've got some braciole to eat. We'll catch up with you
next week, see y'all later.
