Beef and Pork Recipes (from Italyum)
Involtini al prosciutto
The "involtini" (meat rolls) is a very popular dish among the Italians, usually eaten with mashed potatoes or polenta. Its main characteristic is that you can fill them with whatever you want. It's a clever way to cook and flavour the meat, and you can prepare them in many different ways.
Here, I will present one of the simplest recipes, which requires very few ingredients. Once you have mastered the technique, you can try making them with different fillings.
Ingredients:
2 1/2 oz Thin slices topside of beef
4 Wide slices of cooked ham (alternatively 8 small slices)
8 Slices of processed cheese
A little container with plain flour for dusting
2 fl oz Extra virgin olive oil
4 fl oz White wine
A ladleful of beef stock (dissolve 1 stock cube in about a pint of boiling water)
5 Sage leaves
Salt and ground pepper for seasoning
About 10 feet of string for tying the meat (ask your butcher)
Preparation:
Take the first topside slice of beef and put it onto a working surface. Cut one slice of cooked ham in two halves (I prefer using wide slices of cooked ham because I can cut them in different shapes and sizes according to my needs).
Put one of the cooked ham slices you cut onto the topside slice.
On the top of the ham put one slice of cheese.
Slices of processed cheese melt easily so, to limit the cheese from coming out during the cooking, we need to flip the topside slices edges towards the inside.
Next, roll the topside slice up.
Tie the roll with a piece of string; this will keep the roll together during the cooking. There you are, the first involtino is ready! (involtino is the singular word and involtini is the plural).
Repeat the procedure until you have 8 involtini.
Dust each involtino with flour.
Now, they are ready for cooking.
Take a sauté pan that can contain all the involtini, put the olive oil into it and heat the oil (medium/high heat). Also, keep a small pan with the beef stock handy because you will need a ladleful of stock soon.
When the oil is hot, add all the involtini into the pan.
Brown the involtini. This will take few minutes, usually a couple of minutes for each side.
Use a wooden spatula so that you can easily turn the involtini around until they are browned.
Once browned, you will also notice that the bottom of the pan starts becoming a bit too dry so this is when to add the white wine.
Let the wine evaporate for a couple of minutes, bring the heat down to medium/low and add the sage leaves.
Season with black pepper and salt.
Add just one ladleful of beef stock and cook for few minutes until the sauce thickens (usually no more than 8-10 minutes).
They are ready!
Serve them hot, accompanied with mashed potatoes.
Serves 4.
My porchetta
If you have the chance to travel in central Italy, especially throughout Lazio and Umbria regions, you may be lucky to find some roast pork shops selling porchetta.
Porchetta is usually made of a pork weighting about 60-70 Kg; my kitchen oven is too small for that so I have elaborated my own version that more or less gives you the same results.
It's ideal for picnics, it can be prepared for lunch or dinner accompanied with some vegetables and roast potatoes and can be eaten anytime you are hungry and looking for a treat!
One suggestion: get the meat from a good butcher who can assure you that the meat you are buying came from a good pork, reared outdoors and properly fed (no GM food, no antibiotics or other rubbish as unfortunately happens in the intensive farming).
Ingredients:
5.5 lb Boned flank (aka streaky pork)
¾ oz Rosemary needles
¾ oz Fennel leaves
2 Cloves of garlic
1 fl oz White wine
½ oz Fresh ground black pepper
½ oz Salt
A glass with a small quantity of extra virgin olive oil
Note: you also need a few slices of streaky bacon
Preparation:
Put rosemary, fennel, garlic, black pepper and salt in the blender and mix everything until you have a fine mixture.
Moisten the mixture adding the white wine and stir with a small spoon so that the wine is evenly distributed.
Spread the mixture over the surface of the pork flank (the inside side).
Roll the flank and temporary secure the roll tying a string in the right, centre and left.
Cover the top with streaky bacon. Position the slices so that also the sides of the roll are covered.
Tie the roll with string. Brush some olive oil all over the roll.
Position the roll over a large kitchen foil.
Wrap the roll in the foil paying attention to have the join of the foil upwards so nothing can leqak outside. Put the roll onto a large oven tray and cook for 3 hours. The first 20 minutes at 200 ºC and after swtich to 160ºC and continue cooking until the end.
After 1 ½ hours, open the foil. You will find that in the bottom there is lots of fat. Baste the roll and then remove part of this fat. Leave only the fat you need for basting.
From now on baste every 20-30 minutes until the end.
Put the porchetta onto a chopping board.
Make as many slices as you like using a big sharp knife. Put the slice onto a roll and spread some of the fat you have in the bottom of the tray over the slice and the other side of the bread roll.
If you have arrived at this stage you will not regret of having spent three hours looking after a piece of pork and probably you will be proud of having made something really special.
Serves 6.
Buon appetito!
