Orecchiette with braciole and ragu

Don’t panic when I tell you the main ingredient is horsemeat 🙂 It works just as well with beef. Thanks to Antonella for the recipe. If you are wondering why there are more photos than normal, I prepared this dish so I could post the recipe on another forum. If you like you can serve the sauce with the pasta as the first course, and the braciole as the second course.

Ingredients for 4 people

Braciole ingredients

• 400g of pasta
• 400g thinly sliced steak (horse or beef)
• A few cloves of garlic, finely chopped
• A few spigs of parsley, finely chopped
• Some grated Grana or parmesan
• 500g tomatoes – If you can’t get really ripe ones, use tinned.
• 1 carrot, finely chopped
• 1 stick of celery, finely chopped
• 1 onion, finely chopped
• Fresh basil
• Cocktail sticks

And last but not least 🙂

Good red wine

• It can be served with just about any type of pasta, but here they use orecchiette (little ears).
• First peel, deseed and chop the tomatoes. It’s much easier if you cut an x in each one and blanch for about a minute. The skin virtually falls off.
• Then prepare the braciole. Cut the meat into stips about 5cm wide. Put a little garlic, parsley and Grana on each strip. Roll up and fasten with a cocktail stick

Assembling the braciole

1. Brown the braciole in a heavy pot – one that’s good for slow cooking. Remove and put to one side.
2. Add the carrot, onion and celery to the same pot. Fry gently until the onion is well coloured.

1. Return the braciole to the pot and add a good slug of red wine. Cook until the wine has almost reduced to nothing

1. Then add the tomatoes, cover and cook over a very low heat. Cooking time depends on the meat. It should be very tender, but not falling apart. Check every now and again with a sharp knife or a skewer to see when they’re done. Mine took about 3 hours.

1. When they are done, remove the braciole from the sauce. Chuck in a bit of chopped basil. Toss the cooked pasta in a little of the sauce and divide between 4 plates. Remove the cocktail sticks and put 4 or 5 braciole on each plate. Top with more of the sauce, sprinkle on some parmesan and we’re away 🙂 Alternatively, serve the sauce with the pasta as the first course, followed by the braciole as the second course.

I’ve just found out that Tony Soprano’s recipe for ‘Braciole’ (or Brazhool 🙂 )appears in The Soprano Family Cookbook They serve it with ziti though. Would they be the famous ‘Grandma’s ziti’ we were always hearing about 🙂