Pork Braciole

Pork Braciole is a celebratory dish in our house! This year we are making it for Christmas dinner. It does require some work in advance, but then you just put it in the oven to cook. Serve it with a side of pasta and a salad and dinner is complete. Of course, most Italians will make sure there is plenty of crusty bread to soak up all of the sauce too!

Braciole is so popular that we usually make a double recipe and freeze half of it. It holds well in the freezer and is great to pull out and cook on those nights were you want something hardy for dinner, but don’t have a lot of prep time.

What is Pork Braciole?

Braciole is basically a stuffed pork loin that is braised in tomato sauce. Joe uses pork, instead of the traditional beef to make his braciole. The pork loin can braise for a very long time. This allows it to become tender without drying out.

The prep time takes a little longer because you have to butterfly the pork and then pound it out. Next you’ll roll it up with the stuffing inside. Joe fills his braciole with slices of pancetta (Italian bacon) or prosciutto, mozzarella and Pecorino Romano cheese, breadcrumbs, hard boiled eggs, and toasted pine nuts. If you want, you can make this dish even more decadent by adding Italian sausage or other cuts of pork, like bone-in country style ribs, into the tomato sauce that you are going to braise the braciole in.

Joe makes one big braciole and then slices it into servings. You can make small individual servings of braciole if you like. That is how my Nonna (great grandmother) made hers. She used beef and filled the roles with salt pork. Every recipe seems to be slightly different, so feel free to make adjustments to the filling to make it the way you like it!

Pork Braciole

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Recipe by Joe Sanfelippo Course: Main DishCuisine: ItalianDifficulty: Medium

Servings

6

servings

Prep time

45

minutes

Cooking time

2

hours 

Total time

2

hours 

45

minutes

Joe’s Pork Braciole is a pork loin stuffed with pancetta, cheese, breadcrumbs, hardboiled eggs, and pine nuts, then braised in tomato sauce.

Ingredients

• 2 lb 2 pork loin

• 4 oz 4 pancetta, thinly sliced

• 1 cup 1 Italian-style bread crumbs

• 1/2 cup 1/2 mozzarella cheese, shredded

• 1 cup 1 Pecorino Romano cheese, grated

• 2 tbsp 2 pine nuts, toasted

• 2 2 hardboiled eggs, sliced

• 2 tbsp 2 basic tomato sauce

• 2 tbsp 2 olive oil

• 1 tbsp 1 salt

• 1 tsp 1 ground black pepper

• 2 quarts 2 basic tomato sauce (you don’t have to cook this first, since it will cook a long time with the braciole)

Directions

• Turn on the broiler setting of your oven.
• Butterfly the pork loin. Using a sharp knife, place the pork loin fat side up, with the short end toward you. Position the knife 3/4” from bottom of roast; carefully cut 1” into the center of pork. Lift up the top half of the pork loin and continue making shallow horizontal cuts deeper into roast, unrolling the top of pork as you cut and keeping your knife parallel to the cutting board to maintain the same thickness until the pork loin unrolls to form a rectangle
• Place a layer of plastic wrap over the pork loin and pound it with a meat mallet so it is the same thickness across.
• Remove the plastic wrap. Sprinkle the pork with 1/2 tbsp salt and 1/2 tsp ground black pepper. Lay the pancetta evenly across the length of the pork loin. Next, sprinkle the breadcrumbs, mozzarella cheese, Pecorino Romano cheese, and pine nuts over the pork loin evenly. Then lay the sliced eggs and tomato sauce over the filling. Lastly, drizzle with olive oil.
• Starting at 1 short end, roll up the pork loin as for a jelly roll to enclose the filling completely. Using butcher’s twine, tie the pork roll to secure. Sprinkle the braciole with the remaining 1/2 tbsp salt and 1/2 tsp ground black pepper.
• Place the braciole, seam side down, in a Dutch oven or foil pan and place under the broiler until the braciole is browned (about 5 minutes).
• Take the braciole out of the oven. Reset your oven to 350F.
• Pour the tomato sauce over the braciole and cover tightly with a lid or foil. The braciole should be almost completely covered with the tomato sauce.
• Bake for approximately 2 hours, until fork tender.
• Let the braciole rest for about 15 minutes before slicing. Enjoy!

Notes

• Serve this pork braciole with a side of pasta and a salad and dinner is complete.