Friday, February 21, 2014

Involtini , Braciola or Roulade - no matter what you call them they are delicious!

Around the holidays I was roaming the meat department at one of our local grocery stores when I caught site of the butcher putting out the most beautiful looking thin slices of beef. I immediately began loading up the carriage with an assortment of ingredients while my lovely wife looked on with a look of wonderment as to what I was planning. 

I grabbed 2 packages of the beef, some bacon, a bag of baby greens (spinach, bok choy, red and green chard) tomatoes, green onions and poblano chili peppers. At home I knew I had an assortment of shredded cheese, artichoke hearts, fresh mozzarella and homemade pesto sauce, ya dinner was going to be remarkable tonight! 

Once I was home I began prepping all the delicious ingredents that would become my fillings and before long everyone was sitting at the breakfast bar watching me transform simple ingredients into a mouth watering dinner.


This one was what I like to consider an Italian style BLT. I had the baby greens which had been sauteed in olive oil with garlic and a pinch of salt, diced tomatoes, crispy bacon pieces and green onions.



This next one was Alex's take on Tex-Mex. It had diced tomatoes, green onions, poblano pepper strips and shredded Montery Jack, Cheddar, Queso Quesadilla and Asadero cheese blend.


The favorite which was inspired by Rebecca and Ariel. I spread a nice layer of my homemade pesto sauce and topped it with sliced artichoke hearts, diced fresh mozzarella cheese and a few green onions.


Once I had the stuffing in place I carefully rolled and bundled each yummy package and with the help of some butchers twine they were ready for the pan!

  Are you hungry yet?

I drizzled the pan with olive oil and sprinkled in some freshly chopped garlic. Once it was nice and hot I added in the meat to lightly sear on each side. 


Once they were seared I put the pan in a 425*F oven for 5 minutes to complete the cooking process. Normally when making these I would have a batch of sauce on the stove and would toss the meat into the sauce to finish cooking. The important thing to remember is to keep it simple, fun and most importantly delicious!