Bari-style rolls are a traditional dish from Bari… typically called brasciòle. The rolls are slices of beef (or horse) seasoned with basic ingredients such as pecorino cheese, garlic, parsley, salt, chili pepper, or black pepper and optionally added with bacon, lard, spicy salami, etc., depending on family tradition, then rolled and cooked with tomato sauce very slowly in a terracotta pot, as tradition dictates. This is our Sunday dish, in every Bari family you can’t miss orecchiette pasta with the rolls’ sauce. Slow cooking for 1 and a half hours will make the sauce thick and the rolls will melt in your mouth, not to mention the aroma that fills the houses… The taste is guaranteed, but explaining it is impossible… you have to taste them! Below I leave you some typical recipes from my city.
- Difficulty: Easy
- Cost: Medium
- Preparation time: 1 Hour
- Portions: 2/3
- Cooking methods: Slow Cooking
- Cuisine: Italian
Ingredients
- 6 slices veal shoulder (or top blade, blade roast, etc.)
- 10.5 oz pork bacon cut into pieces
- chili pepper
- pecorino cheese
- minced garlic
- parsley
- salt
- 1 onion
- 1 liter bottle of tomato passata
- Half a glass red wine
- 7 oz tomato pulp
- oil
Tools
- Terracotta pot
- Toothpicks
Steps
First, take a piece of bacon and cut it into smaller pieces. If you prefer, let your butcher do it.
Take the slices of shoulder and season them by first adding salt, grated pecorino cheese, chopped chili peppers, parsley, minced garlic, and a few pieces of bacon.
Close by rolling the slice of meat onto itself and secure it with a toothpick. If you prefer, you can close them with kitchen twine. Continue with all the slices.
When you have finished preparing the rolls, prepare the sauce.
In the pot (preferably terracotta), add a little oil and 1 onion, lightly sauté and start adding the rolls and larger pieces of bacon. In this step, keep the flame a bit higher; when the rolls have changed color, add the wine and let it evaporate for a few minutes.
Now lower the flame to the minimum, add salt, tomato pulp, and tomato passata, and half a glass of water or better, rinse the passata bottle to recover the settled tomato.
Cover and let it cook for 1 and a half hours.
The sauce will be thick and the rolls will melt in your mouth.
The sauce and the brasciòle are ready! Enjoy your meal!
Storage
You can store the rolls in the fridge for 2/3 days.
Notes
The piece of meat should be beef shoulder, tender and not dry. Or you can also choose the flank (part of the belly); the cooked roll will shred a bit due to the cut of the meat, but it’s equally good.
