Stuffed veal rollups
Bracioline ripiene
The wonder of Italian cooking is that it takes a few simple ingredients and turns them into a meal fit for kings. Like these stuffed veal rollups, which I first saw in Elizabeth David’s ‘Italian Food
’. The thin slices of a rather inferior cut of meat stuffed with a mixture of pine nuts and raisins, become tongue-melting wonderful when braised in white wine. To think that you can have so much flavor for such a modest cost and effort.
All over Italy veal rollups are served with different kinds of filling. The raisin and pine nut version is normally attributed to Napoli.
Ingredients
12-15 small and thin veal cutlets from silverside or rump
3 tbsp pine nuts
3 tbsp raisins
3 tbsp grated pecorino (or parmesan)
4 slices of cured ham
Fresh sage
1 tbsp flour
500 ml white wine
Olive oil, salt and pepper
Preparation
Chop raisins, pine nuts, sage and ham and mix with grated parmesan, salt and pepper.
Place a little stuffing on each veal cutlet, roll it up and close it with a wooden toothpick.
Heat the olive oil in a large saucepan.
Brown all the rollups – one layer at a time
Remove the rollups and fry a tablespoon of flour in the olive oil.
Add a little water before it starts to stick and stir in the white wine
Return the rollups to the saucepan and let them simmer under lid for 1-1½ hour until the meat is very tender.
Serve the stuffed veal rollups with bread, salad, potatoes or roasted roots.
Other scallopini recipes you might want to try:
Stuffed veal rollups with pinenuts and raisins are also known as ‘scalloppina napoletana’
Looks like a simple yet delicious dish! I’d probably pair this with a Burnello de Montalcino or a Valpolicella, even though it’s made with white wine!
Delicious. I love these little things (and anything involtini-ish). I tried to do something similar to this when I was in the UK over the summer, but (a) I didn’t slice the meat thinly enough and (b) I didn’t braise them long enough, so they ended up tough as old boots. All a learning experience, though … :)
Must admit I’ve had similar experiences. But they become less frequent the more I practice:)