Italian Beef Braciole Recipe (Involtini) + Video
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This Italian braciole recipe may take hours to cook, but that first bite is well worth the wait! Make it tonight for the ultimate comfort food meal. This is a great option for a classic Italian dish and a delicious comforting meal. It’s the perfect first course for the holiday season! (and tastes so good the next day, too!)
The texture of the thin slices of beef paired with the rich tomato sauce and parmesan cheese create one of the best Italian classics, ever.
This simple Italian recipe is really made using simple ingredients and is loaded with so many flavors!
I love to pair this beef roll with so many different things: red skin mashed potatoes, a simple side salad, or even a little bit of pasta! The texture and flavor of the tender meat can’t be beat!
Thin strips of steak are stuffed with salami, fresh herbs, and a hard-boiled egg then simmered in a seasoned tomato sauce until tender.
Every bite melts in your mouth and explodes with incredible flavor, leaving you wanting more.
If you love this Italian braciole recipe, try my slow cooker Beef Bourguignon or this easy lasagna.
Both are incredibly easy to prepare but are impressive enough to serve to dinner guests or for the holidays.
Ingredients
- Top round steaks – Using thin slices of steak makes this dish easier to roll and tie with butcher’s twine.
- Sliced Genoa salami – This is one of the key ingredients to add that savory filling.
- Italian flat leaf parsley – You can also add more of this on top for garnish.
- Fresh basil – For flavor.
- Hard-boiled eggs – Enlist the kids to help peel the eggs once they are cooked.
- Extra virgin olive oil
- Yellow onion – A sweet onion could be used as well.
- Garlic – Minced garlic adds the most flavor, but garlic powder could be used in a pinch.
- Tomato paste
- San Marzano tomatoes – Use a potato masher to mash them up, or just use good crushed tomatoes.
- Water
- Basil leaves – Chop them up to release more flavor.
- Fresh oregano
- Bay leaves
- Ground black pepper
- Sugar – Adding a tiny bit of sugar helps break up the acidity of the tomatoes.
Table of Contents
How To Make Italian Braciole
First, pound the steaks to about ¼-inch thickness with a tenderizer. Lay salami, herbs, and a hard-boiled egg down the center of each steak, then roll up and tie with twine.
Cook the meat in a little olive oil, flipping until it is browned on all sides. Transfer to a plate and prepare the tomato sauce in the same pan.
Then, nestle the steak rolls in the sauce and simmer covered for at least an hour.
Simmering the meat low and slow helps to break down tougher cuts, resulting in perfectly tender bites.
Once done, snip off the twine and garnish with extra parsley before serving.
Ingredient Notes
- Pick larger steaks. Aim for at least ½ pound each so they will be large enough to wrap around the egg once pounded thin.
- Cook the eggs first! If you have an air fryer, you can pop those in while you prep the other ingredients.
Otherwise, boil them on the stove ahead of time so they are ready to go. - Quickly mash the tomatoes. Pour the can into a shallow bowl and press down with a potato masher until well crushed.
You can also use regular crushed tomatoes. They will just be more acidic than the San Marzano variety. - Choose the right parsley. There are two Italian varieties – curly and flat leaf.
Curly is only good for garnishing plates, so be sure to grab the kind that is similar in appearance to cilantro.
Variations
Even though any variations will take away from the trueness of this Authentic Italian Braciole recipe, I think it’s important to showcase that there are options when it comes to varying the outcome of this Italian cuisine.
It can be fun to create your own versions of Braciole, too. Sometimes, it just comes down to personal preference.
Use different cuts of beef – Having thin-sliced beef is key for this Italian favorite. You can use thin flank steak for the rolled meat, as well as any other thin cut of beef.
If you have questions about options, talk to the butcher at your local grocery store. They’ll be able to point you in the right direction.
Add a slice of prosciutto – Adding slices of prosciutto can add great flavor to this dish. It’s keeping it true to the Italian food roots – but be sure that you’re adding a single layer and not overdoing it.
Especially if you’re adding this for the first time – as the flavor of prosciutto can be overpowering to any other cut of meat.
FAQ – Common Italian Braciole Recipe Questions
Traditionally, a bit of the sauce is tossed with freshly cooked pasta as a starter. Then, the beef is served alongside roasted vegetables.
If you want to keep it simple, spoon everything over your favorite tube-shaped noodles or homemade mashed potatoes. It’s also delicious with polenta or risotto.
My family has enjoyed this braciole with our baked ziti and eggplant parmesan, which makes an amazing special occasion meal!
This fancy-sounding kitchen skill is really quite simple.
Stack several clean leaves on top of each other and roll them into a tight cylinder – it doesn’t matter if you go top to bottom or side to side.
Then, slice the roll into thin rounds and separate them with your fingers. You’ll end up with perfectly sized ribbons for your dish!
Using a meat mallet and a cutting board is going to be your best bet. In order to make the beef rolls, you will need to beat on the meat until it’s thin. You need to get it thin enough that you can roll it to tie it with kitchen twine so that it holds in place to cook.
Some people do use a rolling pin as well to help push and thin out the meat, but either option will work. The first step is figuring out the best cut of meat, and the second step is to make sure that the meat is thin enough to roll and cook.
Once you get those two things under control, you’re well on your way to creating the best beef braciole recipe ever. It’s amazing how the flavors of this Southern Italy dish all come together – and it’s new recipes like this that make the joy of cooking and creating so much fun.
Enjoy!
With love, from our simple kitchen to yours.
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Italian Braciole Recipe with How To Make Video
Ingredients
- 3 pounds top round steaks, 6 steaks
- 3/4 pound sliced Genoa salami
- 1/2 cup chopped Italian flat leaf parsley, plus more for garnish
- 1/2 cup chiffonaded fresh basil
- 6 hard-boiled eggs, peeled
- 1/4 cup extra-virgin olive oil
Sauce
- 1 small yellow onion, chopped
- 4 cloves garlic, minced
- 2 tablespoons tomato paste
- 1 – 28 ounce can san marzano tomatoes , (use potato masher to mash them up, or just used good crushed tomatoes)
- 14 ounces can of water
- small handful basil leaves, chopped
- 1 tablespoon chopped fresh oregano
- 2 dried bay leaves
- salt and freshly ground black pepper
- pinch sugar, takes the edge off the acidity
Instructions
- Place each steak between two sheets of plastic wrap and pound out to about a ¼” thickness using a meat tenderizer.
- Place 4-5 slices of salami, overlapped, down the center of each steak. The salami should stop about 1/4” from each edge of the steak.
- Toss together the parsley and basil and then divide the herb mixture into 6 portions.
- Place one portion of herbs over the salami on each steak. Place a hard-boiled egg in the center.
- Fold in each side of the steak toward the center and then roll up the steak to make a neat little packet. Tie the two ends with twine. Repeat for all of the steaks.
- In a 12-inch skillet, heat ¼ cup of olive oil. Brown the steak packets on all sides in the olive oil over medium heat. Remove the braciole from the pan and set aside.
- Drain all but 2 tablespoons of leftover oil, leaving the browned bits in the pan.
- Over medium heat, cook the onion until soft and translucent. Add the minced garlic to the pan and cook 1-2 minutes longer.
- Add the remaining sauce ingredients to the pan and stir to combine. Heat over medium, scraping up the browned bits from the bottom of the pan.
- Place the bracioles back into the pan of sauce, cover, and simmer for 1-2 hours.
- Garnish with freshly chopped Italian flat leaf parsley.
Video
Nutrition
All nutritional information is based on third party calculations and is only an estimate. Each recipe’s nutritional value will vary depending on the ingredients used, measuring methods, and portion sizes.
Originally published October 2021, updated and republished December 2024
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This looked so hard to make, but actually came out amazing. I’m putting this on my weekly rotation, even though it takes a while to make it is so worth it.
My mum used to make this when I was a kid (without the salami/herbs in the centre), so delicious! Thank you for the recipe.
Hi Laralin,
We are happy to hear that! Have a great day!
TSRI Team Member,
Holli
My husbands mother was from Milan, Italy. His father was from Sicily.
He would put in a little crushed up anise seed instead of any kind of sugar, to sweeten the tomatoes.
His sauce would never stain clothing. (My kids would be covered in it when they were little, from slurping up the spaghetti when no one is looking).
This is just like his recipe, except for the sugar. But he was born in 1924 and I believe sugar was hard to come by because of food rationing.
I love your recipes!
We call this Brugioluni
Its a family favorite