Holy Meat Sauce, Batman!

In my last post, I promised you guys a recipe for the little culinary delights known as meatballs. Grandma is really good at making meatballs. She is also really good at braciole (the word is commonly pronounced /bra'zhul/ from the Sicilian language).

Braciole is one of my favorites. Its pretty much just as simple as making a meatball, but I usually save them for special occasions. If you don't know what they are, let me enlighten you. Braciole are basically little roulades made with beef round steak and filled with spices, cheese and a secret center- a hard boiled egg. If you don't really like egg, you can just pick it out at the end, or you can stuff it with something else like a sausage. Ive never stuffed it with a sausage, but what could be bad about stuffing meat with more meat? Nothing. Exactly!

So in this post, I will give you the recipe for both, my grandma's meatballs and her recipe for braciole. You ARE  welcome.

First, let me introduce you to Grandma Salerno. Here she is making her famous pizza. She has to sit down to do it now, because her legs are so bad. Poor grammy. (sad face)

At this point, you should be gathering all your ingredients and starting your pot of sauce.

While your sauce is heating up, this is when I make my meatballs and braciole. OR if you know ahead of time that you are going to make the sauce, prep all your meat the night before and keep it in the fridge until morning when you start your sauce. Either way, will lead you to a successful pot of meat sauce your family will enjoy.

Normally when I make meatballs, I use a good quality 15% fat ground sirloin. Do not use the chub of beef. First, you don't know what's under that packaging. Ive found bits of bone, gristle, teeth (just kidding about the teeth). Just get it from the butcher, if you are in doubt. Now, usually I use beef, but you can also make turkey meatballs or you can do a combination of beef and ground pork. You can even use veal, if you want. The meat just needs to be good quality. Don't EVER EVER EVER skimp on quality. You are only cheating yourself.

Meatballs

1 lb good quality ground sirloin, pork, turkey or veal (or you can combine beef and pork 1/2lb of each)

1/2c FRESH Italian flat leaf parsley, chopped (DO NOT USE THE DRIED STUFF)

2 cloves of garlic (use the real stuff)

1/2c grated Parmesan cheese

1 egg, slightly beaten

1 small palm full or more of Italian seasoned breadcrumbs

2-3 tbsp milk

salt and pepper

In a large bowl, combine all ingredients. Use your hands to mix everything together. Do not, I repeat, DO NOT use a blender or a food processor for this. Breaking up the meat particles too small will result in tough meatballs. You want tender meatballs, so use your hands to massage the meat and seasonings just until its combined. If the meat is too sticky or wet, add a tiny bit more breadcrumbs and mix again. The mixture shouldn't be too sticky or too dry. If you add too much dry breadcrumbs, you can add a tiny bit more milk, but don't play around with it too much. (Get your minds out of my gutter!)

Then, take a bit of meat and start rolling in between your palms. You will end up with about 12 golfball sized meatballs.

This picture shows a slightly bigger recipe. Don't think you should have this many unless you double the recipe. You didn't do anything wrong.

Now. You can either bake them or put them in a pan and brown them. If you want to bake them, put them on a parchment-lined pan, and bake them at 350°F for 30 minutes. If you plan on pan frying, put them all in a large pan, not touching, and fry them on medium to medium-high heat on all sides until there is just a little pink in the center, about 10-15 minutes. If you don't have a large enough pan to fit all 12 in there at once, fry them in two or three batches. You need to leave some space in between them so that they cook evenly. Then, when they are done, just drop them in your pot of sauce to continue the cooking process. They will be super tender when the sauce is done.

Now for the braciole. Each piece of round steak makes one braciole. If I am making meatballs and sausage too, I will only make 2 braciole and slice them up at the end so everyone will get a piece.

Braciole

2 pieces of round steak, sliced thin

2 hard boiled eggs, peeled and cooled

Parmesan cheese

minced fresh garlic

chopped FRESH Italian flat leaf parsley

salt and pepper

butchers twine

First, lay out your round steak on your prepping surface.

Sprinkle the side facing up with salt, pepper, garlic, cheese & parsley. Place your egg on one end like the picture below.

Starting from the end with the egg, roll up the meat around the egg. Use the butchers' twine to truss (tie) the roulade. If you have never done this before, here is a video from Youtube that I found that will demonstrate the proper way to tie. Click here. (It is super easy, so don't be scared to try it.)

Next, you will place each of your braciole in the pan, and brown the outsides. When all sides are browned, drop them into the pot of sauce.

Fry all other meat, and add it to the pan. I would give the sauce about 3-4 solid hours of simmering before serving. Remember to stir occasionally, and keep it on the lowest heat setting possible to avoid the sauce burning the bottom of the pan. Give it a bit of time to develop all the deep flavors of the different meat you added.

A tip for a bit of extra flavor: You should have tons of caramelized bits at the bottom of your meat frying pan. If they aren't burnt, good job! You didn't walk away from your pan while cooking to play with the kids or dogs. Gold star for you! Grandma doesn't do this, but this is my addition. Using a good quality red wine, pour about 1/2c in the pan over medium heat. Using a wooden spoon or a whisk, so you don't scrape the bottom of your pan, slowly stir the wine while scraping the bits left over from cooking together. Pour all that goodness into your sauce pot and stir again to combine. This adds yet another layer of flavor to your delicious sauce!

Enjoy!