Involtini di Carne al Sugo
Involtini di Carne al Sugo·(een-vohl-TEE-nee dee CAR-neh ahl SOO-goh)
Il Pranzo della Domenica: The Sunday Anchor
If you grew up Italian-American in an Ohio suburb, the smell of Sunday gravy simmering on the stove is practically encoded in your DNA. At the heart of that bubbling pot were the braciole—tender rolls of beef stuffed with cheese and herbs. But somewhere along the diaspora, breadcrumbs crept into the filling to stretch the budget. Today, we return to the ancestral source. No breadcrumbs. Just the intense, unadulterated punch of sharp Pecorino Romano, fresh garlic, sweet parsley, and rich pancetta melting into slow-braised beef. It is an exercise in profound transformation, yielding an immaculate pasta sauce for your first course and melt-in-your-mouth meat for your second.
Before you start
Prepare the butcher's twine.
Cut several lengths of kitchen twine to have ready for tying the meat, or locate wooden toothpicks if you are in a hurry.
Ingredients
- beef top round1 1/2 lb
- unsmoked pancetta8 slice
- Pecorino Romano cheese1/2 cup
- garlic3 large clove
- fresh flat-leaf parsley1/2 cup
- pine nuts1/4 cup
- raisins1/4 cup
- kosher salt1 tsp
- black pepper1/2 tsp
- extra-virgin olive oil3 tbsp
- yellow onion1 med
- dry red wine1/2 cup
- crushed tomatoes56 oz
- water1 cup
- fresh bay leaf2 med
- fresh basil4 sprig
Method
- 01
Pound the beef uniformly thin.
Place the beef slices between two sheets of plastic wrap and gently pound with the flat side of a meat mallet until they are about 1/8-inch thick, being careful not to tear the meat. Season the tops lightly with salt and pepper.
- 02
Build the flavor core.
Lay a slice of pancetta across each piece of beef to provide internal basting fat. Distribute the Pecorino Romano, garlic, parsley, pine nuts, and plumped raisins evenly across the center, leaving a half-inch border to prevent spillage.
- 03
Roll and secure the meat.
Fold the long edges inward slightly, then roll the meat tightly from the short end like a cigar. Secure each roll with two wooden toothpicks woven diagonally through the seam, or tie them tightly with butcher's twine.
- 04
Sear the rolls to build a foundation.
Heat the olive oil in a heavy-bottomed Dutch oven over medium-high heat. Sear the meat in batches until it develops a rich, deep brown crust on all sides, then transfer to a plate.
- 05
Deglaze the pot and build the sauce.
Lower the heat to medium, add the diced onion to the rendered beef fat, and sauté until translucent. Pour in the red wine, scraping up the browned bits from the bottom, and let it reduce by half before adding the crushed tomatoes and water.
- 06
Simmer low and slow.
Return the beef and any resting juices to the pot, tuck in the bay leaves and basil, and bring to a gentle boil. Reduce the heat to the absolute lowest setting, partially cover, and let it gently bubble for at least two hours until the meat yields completely to a fork.
- 07
Serve the dual feast.
Carefully remove the meat and pull out every toothpick or piece of twine. Toss the rich, reduced tomato sauce with freshly boiled rigatoni for your first course, serving the tender involtini alongside crusty bread as your main.
Notes
The weeknight slow cooker hack.
To pull this off on a busy Wednesday, sear the meat, sauté the onions, and deglaze with wine the night before. Toss the resulting foundation into a slow cooker with the tomatoes on low for 6 to 7 hours while you're at work.
The secret is in the omission.
Resist the urge to add breadcrumbs to the filling. Leaving them out forces a revelation of pure, sharp flavor from the pecorino and garlic that tastes exactly like the ancestral homeland.
From Cook Italian in America.