This tomato sauce and braciole recipe has been passed down from generation to generation and I'm so happy to share it with you. Only slight adjustments were needed to make this a much healthier, 21 Day Fix approved meal.
This recipe is really special to me. It's a slightly adapted version of my mother's and my grandmother's and my great grandmother's (or Mama as she was known by all) sauce and braciole. Basically, it's home and comfort and joy, served up in a big ol' pot. Braciole (pronounced brajole) are beef rolls filled with garlic, parsley and cheese, simmered all day in tomato sauce until they're tender and delicious. Now, I know what you're thinking: but you don't look Italian, is this sauce the real deal? <enter side eye> Ok, so technically I'm not, BUT this recipe is and so was Mama. Let's just say that I'm the product of a wonderfully blended family. We can also say that this sauce is da bomb. (The kids are still saying that right?)
Anyway, this is the PERFECT time of year to pass along this recipe to you guys, because in my family, Christmas dinner revolves around an enormous pot of this awesome sauce. Hahaha... awesomesauce! Ok, moving on, let me continue telling you about our Christmas dinner. <contented sigh> It just makes me so happy. We have three courses (not including dessert), because it's the fanciest meal of the year, so of course there are courses 🙂 Our first course is wedding soup, which is something that I should really get up on the blog - I'll have to work on that. Our second course is antipasto (of which, I could eat all day every day and be a very happy girl), then the main course is stuffed shells, Italian rice, meatballs, 2 kinds of sausages and plenty of extra sauce (or gravy as Grandma calls it) and cheese around the table. Oh, also a pineapple and brown sugar-glazed ham if we have a lot of people. Sometimes we do, sometimes we don't. Whew. It's so much, but it's so, so good.
Did you notice that I didn't mention braciole on this HUGE list of holiday joy? Well, we actually never make it. Nope, never. In fact, the first time I ever had it was when I made it recently for the blog. The story goes that it used to always be made and served when a pot of sauce was made, but a long time ago (when I was too young to remember or possibly even before my time), my grandfather told my grandmother that it wasn't his favorite, so she stopped making it. Therefore, my mother never made it, therefore I never made it. Though I had heard delicious tales of said braciole. Anyway, quite a while back when my grandmother had given me the recipe for the tomato sauce, it included how to make the braciole and since I didn't want to use sausage (for obvious, 21 Day Fix-related reasons) to flavor this sauce, I decided to try this out instead and I'm so ridiculously glad I did. Meatballs are great, too, but it's nice to have something different. I would be remiss not to also mention that my meat-loving husband was basically in beef heaven 🙂
I know that this isn't what most of you are probably eating this Christmas and that's ok. This is an amazing, surprisingly easy (though admittedly time consuming) meal that makes a ton and is perfect for company, for making ahead, or just for the love of Sundays. Check out these easy steps:
Put all of your sauce ingredients into the pot. Cover until it comes to a bubble, stirring occasionally. Once it comes to a bubble, turn down the heat to a simmer and put the lid back on, this time askew.
Meanwhile, get out some aggression by pounding the bajeezus out of your thin-cut round steak. Seriously, go nuts.
Cut into strips about 2 inches wide.
Pecorino Cheese.
Parsley.
Garlic.
Roll 'em up and tie them twice with twine or use toothpicks to secure.
Brown those glorious rolls on all sides.
Add them to your pot o' sauce. Remove about a cup of sauce from the pot, set aside. Then, while your pan is still hot and all of those flavorful browned bits are hanging out in there just waiting to be used, pour the sauce into the pan (holding it away from you because it WILL splatter), once it settles, give it a stir and add everything back into your sauce pot.
Cook all damn day. {Believe me, it's worth it.}
Enjoy the fruits of your labor. Possibly with a glass of wine?
Note: I've tried this in the slow-cooker and it was a total #fail. Cooking the sauce in a covered crockpot just didn't allow the flavors to deepen the way they do when the sauce gets to cook down a bit on the stove. It still tasted acidic to me, almost like raw tomatoes even though it had been cooking all day, just FYI.
Another note: There is a big debate on how to count tomato sauce for the 21 Day Fix. The book says it's a purple, Autumn in the past has mentioned that you can count homemade sauce that doesn't include sugar as a green, which technically this would fall under. I'll let you decide how you want to count this, but if you're wondering, personally I count this as a purple due to the calorie count. However, if I were making this without any meat for some reason, I would probably count it as a green, just sayin'. Sometimes you just have to use your best judgement. Or ask for a second opinion, that's what coaches are for! (Or me, I'm always happy to help!)
Ok, last note, I swear!: After I wrote out this recipe and I was discussing it with Grandma, she told me that Mama used to make her braciole with fontina cheese, not the pecorino she had accidentally written in the recipe she gave me. I LOVED it with the pecorino, but feel free to try it with either cheese (or maybe a little of both?!). Definitely delicious either way.
Makes about 8 cups of sauce and 12 braciole.
If you make this recipe be sure to snap a pic and tag me @thefoodieandthefix on Instagram so I can check it out! It makes me ridiculously happy to see what you guys are making 🙂
📖 Recipe
{21 Day Fix} All Day Tomato Sauce with Braciole
Ingredients
Sauce:
- 3 (28 oz) cans of San Marzano crushed or whole tomatoes (if whole, they should be pureed in a food processor or blender)
- 1 (6 oz) can of tomato paste (no salt added)
- ½ cup red wine (I usually use either cabernet or merlot)
- ½ teaspoon italian seasoning
- ⅓ cup chopped flat-leaf parsley
Braciole:
- 2 lbs beef round steak (the thinnest you can find, these will be large pieces, not the small ones, could substitute flank steak), trimmed if necessary
- salt and pepper
- 1 bulb of garlic, minced
- ¾ cup chopped flat-leaf parsley
- ¾ cup pecorino romano (or parmigiano), grated
- kitchen twine or toothpicks, for securing rolls
- 2 Tbs extra virgin olive oil
Instructions
Start your sauce:
- In a large pot (non-stick if you've got it) add your tomatoes, tomato paste and wine. Cover. Bring to a bubble, then turn down to simmer. Place your pot lid on just slightly askew so that steam can escape (you want the sauce to cook down slightly, it won't with the lid on, and it will cook down WAY too much with the lid off.) Stir the sauce occasionally. If you're not using a non-stick pot, it is likely that your pot will burn some of the sauce at the bottom. I know this sounds awful, but it's completely fine. Just make sure not to scrape the bottom when you stir and you'll be good to go. My mother and my grandmother both use enormous aluminum pots for this sauce and it always happens. This will not harm your sauce in any way as long as you don't bring up the burned bits when you stir. No big deal.
Prepare your braciole:
- Place one piece of beef on a cutting board and using a meat mallet/tenderizer, get out all of your aggression on both sides. Repeat with remaining pieces of beef.
- Next, you are going to slice (kitchen shears work best here) your beef into 12 pieces. Because of the odd shape of the beef these will not all be exact, just do your best with the shape you've got. Mine were about two inches wide.
- Now, working two or three at a time, lay your pieces on your cutting board. Season lightly with salt and pepper. Flip them over and season this side only with pepper.
- On each piece, sprinkle 1 tablespoon of grated cheese, then parsley and garlic. I didn't measure the parsley and garlic since they're freebies for the 21 Day Fix, just sprinkle on however much you like. - A little note about the garlic: these rolls are going to cook for a significant amount of time in the sauce and the garlic completely mellows out, so no need to be afraid of it.
- Roll up your braciole and secure with either two pieces of twine or a toothpick. Either will work, but it's so much easier to brown the braciole when you use the twine.
- In a large saute pan (I used a heavy-bottomed stainless steel pan) heat 1 tablespoon of olive oil to medium heat. Add six of your rolls to the pan and brown on all sides. If a little bit of the filling falls out, that's fine, great even! It'll just flavor the oil even more. The rolls may stick a little bit and that's ok, just use a spatula to get them up to turn them. Once fully browned, remove them and add them to your sauce pot.
- Add the remaining tablespoon of olive oil to your saute pan, then brown the rest of your braciole, remove them and place them into the sauce pot.
- Don't skip this next step!
- You see that little bit of flavorful olive oil and all of those gorgeous browned bits still in the bottom of your saute pan? You want those. You want those bad. First you'll need to take a couple of precautions. This will splatter big time, so you want to protect yourself with an oven mitt and protect the back of your stove with some paper towels.
- Now, remove about a cup of sauce from the pot. Turn off the burner underneath your saute pan, then holding the pan away from you, towards the back of the stove, carefully (seriously, I don't want anyone getting burned here!!) add the cup of sauce. After a second or two, the splattering will start to settle and you can give it a good stir with a wooden spoon to get up all of the browned bits and mix everything together well. Once that's done, pour the entire mixture back into your sauce pot. Place your lid back on (still slightly askew) a let bubble away for 5-6 hours or until your beef is tender. Mine took 5 hours, but if yours is a little thicker, it will take a little longer.
- Once rolls are cooked, add to the sauce, the chopped parsley and Italian seasoning. This sauce is so tasty on it's own, I didn't really feel that much seasoning was needed here, however, feel free to add what your family will like.
- Serve with whole wheat pasta, zoodles or spaghetti squash and some more cheese for topping. My favorite thing in life is to serve this with zoodles or spaghetti squash so that I can have a hunk of good whole grain french bread to dunk in the sauce. Because that's what heaven tastes like, that's why.
Notes
21 Day Fix Container Container Counts per Serving: ¾ GREEN or PURPLE (see post to help you decide how you'd like to count this) 1 RED, ½ BLUE, 1 TSP
Weight Watchers Freestyle Points: 9
Peggy Lipperman says
I am so proud of you!! Mama would love sharing her recipe with your friends.
Datdamwuf says
Thanks for posting this! I haven't made braciole for 25 years, having a craving and couldn't remember the stuffing I (and my Noni) used. Every other recipe I found was unnecessarily complex (or included raisins). This sounds right, especially your Grandma saying fontina cheese instead of pecorino. The only thing I know I'll add is a little ground pine nuts, that I remember!
I'm wondering if your great grandmother ever made a simple chicken/potato/onion dish that was browned and sticky and delish? Noni is long gone and no one knows exactly how she made it so awesome, yet so simple.
Stephanie says
I'm so glad! Pine nuts sound wonderful! The other thing my Grandmother does which I didn't put in this recipe, because this is a healthier version, is spread some shortening on the meat before the rest of the filling is added. I've never had the chicken/potato/onion dish that you described but I'll ask her and see what she says! You never know, might just be one of those things that she hasn't made in a very long time. 🙂
karrie @ Tasty Ever After says
I'm a big fan of awesome sauce, especially when there's a bunch of beef and cheese bundles in it! I haven't had braciole in years! Didn't even know you had this recipe on your site either so thanks for posting it on FB 😉 Just showed it to hubby J and asked if he wanted it for Vday dinner and he said "Yeah, I'd eat that!" hahahaha!
Stephanie says
Nothing more romantic than a big ol' bowl of pasta, right? This made my day, Karrie! I'm so excited you're going to be making it for Valentine's day! We might be making it then too... it's between this and halibut fra diavolo (but I'll probably go with this because I like having all of the leftovers 🙂 ) Not cooking dinner for a couple of nights... now that sounds like romance 😉
nina Logan says
i made this yesterday and the family (4 boys and husband) couldnt wait as it was cooking all day , i am an experienced cook and did everything as noted , the only thing is i didnt have cabernet or merlot so i used malbec , an Argentinian wine i had on hand...i would like your advice as to why it turned out so acidic, it tasted almost like vinegar , so so disappointed , we had to throw it out , i would like to try again but was wondering what you though
Stephanie says
Oh Nina, I'm so sorry you had this experience and I've been racking my brain trying to figure out why (I even called my mom to see if it's ever happened to her since this is a family recipe, but it hadn't). I will say that my mom doesn't use the wine, but I always do. Was the malbec very acidic or could it have been hanging around awhile? Often when a red wine is older than 3-5 days it can start to turn vinegar-y. The only time this has ever turned out acidic for me (and I think I mention this in the post) was when I tried to make it in the crock pot. When a lid is all the way on, it just doesn't allow the sauce to cook down a bit and get the deeper flavor that you're looking for. Did you maybe put the lid on all the way on your sauce pot? The only other thought I have is maybe the tomatoes you used were more acidic than usual... did you buy a different brand?
nina Logan says
hi,
i do think it was the wine if has been sitting around for a while..i also have been racking my brain and cant think of anything else...i put the lid on correctly , i did not use san marzano tomatoes but i very good quality italian tomato brand? Thanks for the quick response i really like your site
Stephanie says
Ok, that makes sense. Just fyi, I've made this sauce without the wine and it's really great like that too (if you just wanted to eliminate that altogether)! Thanks so much, Nina!
Jen says
I made this today. The house smelled amazing! Even my husband was asking how much longer we had to wait to eat. I didn't cut & pound my own meat. I just bought brasciole meat. I checked at 3 hours & they were done already (I guess is thinner). They turned out great though. I just hope I didn't miss out on an even better sauce not cooking it another 2-3 hours. ?
Stephanie says
Hi Jen, glad you guys liked it! And OMG, your store sells braciole meat?!! That's awesome, I'm so jealous! Sauce is always better the longer you cook it, but believe me, I know how it is smelling it in your house all day, how could you possibly have waited? We've been known to just eat it whenever we're ready for it and then leave it cooking on the stove a bit longer 🙂
Jen says
We live in New Jersey - maybe that's why we have the meat? All the Italians we have here (us included)!
Stephanie says
Haha... yep, I'm sure that's why! I'm in Louisville, KY, so not quite as many Italians here 😉
Jess @ Sweetest Menu says
Man oh man, this seriously looks like the best meal ever. Those tender meat parcels in that gorgeous tomato sauce?! My husband would go nuts for this!!!
Stephanie says
Thanks, Jess! I know, right?! That's the awesome thing about cooking something like this all day, the meat gets soooo tender!
annie says
This is so embarrassing, but I never learned my Nana's sauce recipe. My Italian forefathers (foremothers?) are frowning on my right now. I'm so excited you shared this! I've been wanting to try a good homemade sauce forever.
Stephanie says
Oh no! I know how that feels. There are a couple of recipes that I wish I would have gotten from my other grandmother. Please let me know if you try this one out, Annie! I hope you love it as much as I do 🙂
Meghan | Fox and Briar says
OMG, this looks amazing! Seriously, I want to eat it, like right now. I love the story of your Italian Christmas dinner! So fun and festive. Pinning this, I really really want to make it.
Stephanie says
Aww, thanks, Meghan!