Beef rolls braised in tomato sauce are an Ur-Roman dish. In Rome this spring Tom and I had it twice, at two of our favorite restaurants. One was at Checchino dal 1887, where it’s currently the piatto del buon ricordo. (Explanation at end of this post.) The other was at Osteria ar Galletto, on the Piazza Farnese, whose version was even better. I was determined to recreate it at home, so this week I went to my Roman cookbooks. All four of them have the recipe, with slight variations. I decided to follow the one in Roma in Cucina, the little white book in the photo below. The authors, Luigi Carnacina and Vincenzo Buonassisi, are the Grand Old Men of cooking in Italy.
You lay out slices of beef round, pounded thin, put a slice of prosciutto and a few batons of carrot and celery on each one, roll them up, tie them with kitchen string, and flour them. Meanwhile you brown a trito – finely chopped prosciutto fat (or fatty pancetta or guanciale), celery, onion, and garlic – in olive oil, along with a clove and half a bay leaf, in a broad pan. Brown the beef rolls amid the flavorings, pour on white wine and reduce it, then add pulped tomatoes, salt, pepper, and nutmeg. Cover and cook gently for an hour and a half. The kitchen fills with hearty aromas.
These involtini are traditionally served with parmigiano-laced mashed potatoes and chicory sautéed with crushed garlic and good olive oil, so that’s how I did them. And very good they were: right up there with our recollection of the versions we ate in Rome – better in fact than Checchino’s version, which is not something I say lightly, though not as ineffably flavorful as Ar Galletto’s. I think maybe next time – and there will definitely be a next time for this Italian soul food – I may simmer them longer, to further melt the flavors together and enrich the sauce, and perhaps try red wine rather than white, just to see if that gets me closer to the true Roman transcendental experience.
About piatti del buon ricordo
The Unione dei ristoranti del buon ricordo is an association of restaurants, mostly in Italy, that each feature a traditional regional dish. When you eat the dish (the piatto), you receive a souvenir ceramic plate (also the piatto) to give you a happy memory (buon ricordo) of the meal. Here’s what Checchino’s plate looks like:
I have over 40 of these cheeerful plates from all over Italy, hanging in a frieze around my kitchen walls. They do provide fond memories of great meals! Here’s a selection of them:
This souvenir plate thing is a tradition I can get behind. Your latest addition is very sassy!
Ciao Diane — this is one of my favorite dishes, and quite delicious. I was admiring the cookbooks you have in the photo, especially the Cucina Romana books. I travel to Italia several times a year for my wine business, and I’m always on the lookout for classic Italian cookbooks. Are you a collector?
One of my favorites is the original copy (1976) of “Roma in Bocca” in triple languages Italian, English, and Roman dialect (“Romanaccio”). The book was lovingly created by Antonella Santolini with hand written recipes and bound in a quaint cardboard cover — but the recipes inside are what are most special. A good friend gave me a copy and I prize it for its delicious “cucina romana classica.” It is rather rare and usually goes for a pretty penny, but I highly recommend adding it to your collection.
Buon appetito!
Michael Horne
Dall’Uva
Thanks for your comment, Michael. I wouldn’t call myself a collector, in the sense of looking for old or rare Italian cookbooks, but I’ve picked up various books here and there on my travels. Is Roma in Bocca one of that series of regional Italian cookbooks bound in that quaint peasanty way — thinnish books, coarse brown paper pages with rough-cut edges, some line drawings? I’ve seen those but never bought one.
Diane