Monday, September 14, 2009

STUFFED FLANK STEAK

Good Morning. Another weekend gone by.  Fall is in the air, the kids are back in school, and the ever present "what's for dinner?" looms to the forefront.  Which reminds me of when I was a child.  Food really is the center of an Italian family.  As soon as breakfast is over, it's "What's for lunch?"  When lunch is over, same question, "What's for dinner?"  And the preparations for dinner begin. I doubt that, that goes on in many homes today.  But with slow cookers, stove top grills, bar-b-ques, etc. it is still easy to get a healthy dinner on the table.

Today I want to tell you about a wonderful recipe from my Roman side of the family.  It is called Bracciole or Stuffed Flank Steak.  There are many recipes for this out there, but this is the one that is our family mainstay.

1 good sized flank steak (pound it out a little)
Lay it out flat and drizzle with a little olive oil, salt and pepper

Filling:
2 cups Progresso Italian seasoned bread crumbs
1 cup Parmesan cheese
1 package frozen chopped spinach (well drained)
2 or 3 cloves of garlic finely chopped

Mix all together and spread out onto the flank steak.  Starting at the narrow tip, roll up as tightly as possible, tie each end with butcher string, and once in the middle.  In a fry pan with 2" high sides (chicken cooker) or a dutch oven, heat about 3 tablespoons of olive oil.  When hot, add the steak and brown on all sides.  Turn heat off and pour mixture of 1 3/4 cups of marinara sauce and 1/4 cup of good red wine over the top.  Bake at 350 degrees, covered, for 2 and 1/2 hours or until very tender.  Remove from oven, let set for at east 5 minutes, then cut into slices (against the grain). Spoon the sauce over the meat.  You can also do the browning and then put all into a crock pot on low for 8 hours.  Either way it is delicious.

Serve with small red or fingerling potatoes.  Boil the potatoes, when done, put 2 tablespoon each of butter and olive oil into a saute pan, when hot put the drained potatoes into the pan and brown them quickly.  Add two or three tablespoons of fresh, chopped, Italian flat leaf parsley and salt and pepper.  Simple, but oh so yummy.


Serve with a salad and crispy Italian bread.

Thanks for dropping in today.
Ciao for now.
Grayce

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