Falsomagro roast beef stuffed with eggs, guanciale and cheese

Falsomagro, a large braciola made with beef and stuffed with eggs, cheese and meat, is an iconic Sicilian dish often described as a clever way to make do with little, but its history suggests something quite different.

Dishes like this—large cuts of meat carefully opened, filled, rolled, tied, and slowly cooked—belong to a world where both meat and time were available in abundance. In Sicily as well as probably in the rest of Europe until the XIX century, that world was not the peasant kitchen, but the aristocratic one.

The roots of falsomagro go back at least to the Middle Ages, when the island absorbed culinary ideas from across Europe, including the technique of stuffing meat. The name is likely connected to the French farce.

It is much later, between the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, that the dish takes on the form we recognize today. This is the era of the monsù, the French-trained chefs employed by noble households, who introduced elaborate preparations based on stuffing, layering, and careful presentation.

In those kitchens, falsomagro would have been a display of skill as much as a dish: transforming even tougher cuts of beef into something refined through technique, and enriching them with multiple fillings. It was never meant to be everyday food. It belonged to long meals, to occasions where cooking could take hours and the result was meant to impress.

Only later dishes like the falsomagro did move into domestic cooking. As aristocratic cuisine spread beyond palace kitchens—through apprentices, imitation, and adaptation—the dish was reinterpreted. By the late nineteenth century, falsomagro had become part of the repertoire of festive home cooking, a way to turn a single piece of meat into something generous enough to feed many.

Recipe

Ingredients

• 1 kg (2 lb) beef suitable for braciole (see below)
• 30 gr ( 1 oz) guanciale (or pancetta or spicy salami), thinly sliced
• 6 tablespoon seasoned bread crumbs
• 250 gr ( 1/2 lb) mild cheese like young provolone, young pecorino or mozzarella, sliced
• 2 organic hard-boiled eggs
• 1 tablespoon pine nuts
• 1/2 tablespoon raisins
• 2 medium onions quartered
• dry white wine, extra virgin olive oil, salt and black pepper
• special equipment: kitchen string and parchment paper or two oven bags

Directions

For this recipe I ask the butcher 2 large slices of beef, approx. 25 x 25 x 1 cm ( 10 x 10 x 1/2 inch). Meet cuts are different from one country to another. I suggest to ask for a cut that is suitable for braciola or other meat rollups.

Each slice makes one roll which is more than enough for 4 people. I always make 2 rolls and I freeze leftovers for another meal.

Before stuffing, place the meat on a cutting board and beat it flat with a meat pounder or other heavy object, for example a small cast iron pan wrapped in clingfilm.

Arrange the slices of guanciale over the slices, sprinkle with bread crumbs, pine nuts and raisins, then top with the cheese, eggs and a twist or two of black pepper.

Preheat oven at 220 °C/430 °F.

To roll the falsomagro, beginning rolling with the side nearest you, gently pressing on the filling and making sure it does not  slip out from ends.  Tie the roll crosswise with string at 1.5 cm (3/4-inch) intervals, then tie one time lengthwise.

Heat a cast iron casserole pan over medium-high heat and when hot add 2 tablespoons olive oil. Add the meat and brown it evenly, turning every few minutes. This step will take about 5-10  minutes, depending on the size of the rolls. I find it easier – and less messy – to brown one roll at the time with the pan covered with a lid.

Using thongs or thick plastic gloves transfer each rolls on a sheet of parchment paper or inside an oven bag. Season the rolls outside with salt and pepper, arrange a quartered onion along each roll, sprinkle with one tablespoon of white wine, seal the paper parcel or oven bag then transfer in an oven pan.

The falsomagro rolls wrapped in transparent oven paper which is available n Italy under the name of Carta Fata. You can use parchment paper or oven bags instead.Roast for 30 min turning once. Remove from the oven.

The parcels will have puffed up with steam. Cover with a lid and let them rest 20 more minutes while indirect heat will cook the meat some more but keep it moist. This will also stabilize the rolls.

When cool enough to handle, cut the parcels open and pour the cooking juices and onion in the casserole which you have used to brown the rolls. Reduce over hight heat until creamy and liquidize with a blender. Pour onto a serving plate.

Note that if you slice the rolls when they are still hot, they will fall apart. Slice them when at room temperature or sligthly warm.