Posted on 02/01/2019 6:22:47 PM PST by Jamestown1630
My husband’s great grandfather came to America from Italy in the early 1900s. Husband grew up eating wonderful Italian food, and participating in the Great Annual Family Sauce-making – many scores of quarts every year, using tomatoes they had grown themselves.
One of the dishes he remembers is Braciola, a kind of roulade made with layers of meats and cheese. Searching for a recipe I happened to hit on a wonderful website – Buon-A-Petitti – featuring Grandma Gina Petitti. She has to be the most telegenic and charming of the ‘Grandmas’ I’ve seen on YouTube; and she’s about 84 years old!
(I’ve never seen such lovely arms and hands on a woman of her age – I suspect that the loveliness may come from all the vigorous kneading of pasta, bread, and taralli dough that she has done over decades. At any rate, she is certainly a testament to the value of remaining positive, active and involved as we age.)
Below is a link to her video on making Braciola - but check out some of her others, as well. She does one on canning tomatoes – a whole-family activity for my in-laws; but Gina looks like she can do it all by herself. Also, her stuffed mushrooms look great. Gina’s approach to her traditional cuisine is flexible and innovative, but she doesn’t cut any corners on technique. The videos can be long, but it will do your heart good to watch her!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sXBQL_MjJ4E
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For those of you who are looking for game day munchies, Chef John of 'Food Wishes' has a gread recipe for 'Queso Dip':
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3HyqLEoP1q4
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Something that has apparently gone 'viral' on the Internet over the past few years is Mississippi Pot Roast. I had never heard about it until the last week; and though I'm not a big beef fan, unless it's in a hamburger or hot dog, this looks pretty good.
There are lots of variations on it, using different kinds of salad dressing powders; but here is the one from Food Network:
https://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/mississippi-pot-roast-3517283
-JT
All snowy here today, and we’re socked-in. But here are some good eats for your February!
-JT
Today was a moving sale.
We’ll eat out tonight
I mix up cream cheese frosting (1/2 cup, but any amount even up to sixteen ounces can be used) and 1/2 cup of crunchy peanut butter. Melt them in the microwave and mix quickly. Then pour into greased loaf pan or waxed paper lined container of choice. Place in Fridge until all heat is gone. Cut to preferred size chunks.
The trick is to use equal amounts of peanut butter and instant frosting. Milk chocolate frosting and crunch PB is great, too.
That’s exactly how my husband and his family pronounce it :-)
Italian is a language I haven’t studied, but want to.
I think the singular is braciola and the plural is braciole. Pronunciation seems to slur the ‘ci’ into a sort of ‘zh’ sound :-)
(WHICH MY ITALIAN MOTHER CALLED "GIANT BRAZHOL")
flank steak
1 lb mild Italian sausage
pepper
1/4 cup chopped parsley
1 tbsp oil
1/4 cup red wine
Spread out the steak. Remove the sausage from the casing, and spread it over the meat to within 3/4 inch of all sides. Sprinkle a generous amount of fresh ground black pepper over the sausage and then chopped parsley. Roll it up and tie it with string.
Brown the rolled meat in oil in a skillet on all sides. Add the wine, reduce the heat, cover and cook over a low flame for 1-1/2 hours. If it dries up, add water a little at a time.
Remove the meat to a platter, cut the strings and slice. Use the pan drippings to make gravy.
While Latin grammar is rather straightforward, Italian grammar is messy. The barbarian tribes added a lot of stuff to the basic Latin to make Italian.
Yay, you’re back JT!!!!! My mother in love came from Italy in 56. Her brachial melts in your mouth. She too is insanely vigorous for her age.
Off topic.....i learned that the peasants in Italy were not allowed to own a bible. She worked in a sweatshop in st. Louis & spent her first check on a bible.
I bought a sous vide gadget on Amazon for @ $80. It makes a great steak.
I hate autocorrect..... Braciola
Stay safe!!! And warm.
Been crazy here today! The snow was supposed to stop about 11 AM or 12 PM, according to morning weather reports. One of my correspondents told me that one weather reporting operation had changed its forecast 4 times in 2 hours! Snow went on here until about 7 PM.
Wore my long-undies today. But, home safe and warm, now. :-)
Yes; they call tomato sauce ‘Gravy’ - especially when it comes to ‘Sunday Gravy’ :-)
I’ve switched to pork for my bracciole.
I based it on the recipe below but use chopped hard boiled eggs, parsley, pine nuts, finely chopped garlic and shredded mozzarella for the stuffing. Modify to your taste
I use my own tomato sauce rather than tomatoes and I have found that if I roll the bracciole tightly and place the rolls seam side down, closely packed, in a baking dish with a small amount of sauce in the dish before adding the rolls & then sauce to cover, they don’t unroll & I don’t have to tie them. I sprinke with extra shredded motzarella and bake for 30-40 minutes at 350 degrees.
https://www.diningandcooking.com/23024/frankies-spuntino-pork-braciole/
Good advice; and I love ANYTHING with Pine Nuts!
I have tried a couple of recipes for Mississippi pot roast. My husband likes it but it is too salty for my taste.
Those packets have sodium counts through the stratosphere.
In case it wasn’t clear I don’t saute the pork rolls first either. A streamlined recipe but very tasty.
I was wondering about that too - and the Husband Unit was wondering about the carb count of those packets. We have not made it yet, and will post when we do, with our adjustments.
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