Braġjoli

This straightforward but very tasty dish often has a seemingly weird name inflicted on it by those from English-speaking countries: "beef olives." But, though there are no olives in bragioli, the phrase still makes sense.

The word olive started to be used for any slice of meat rolled up around a stuffing as far back as 1598, according to the Oxford English Dictionary. There was even a verb form -- to "olive" something meant to roll it up this way. Unfortunately the OED gives no hints as to where the phrase might originally have come from. The rolled up slices of meat must have looked like stuffed olives to a fair number of people. (Though plainly not all, as another name for this kind of preparation is "veal birds", possibly related to the French oiseaux sans têtes or alouettes sans têtes, "headless birds" or "larks without heads". By comparison, maybe "beef olives" isn't so bad after all.)

Anyway: back to the bragioli. (And if some Maltese-speaking reader would like to tell us what bragioli actually means, we would be very grateful.) The basic, classic version of the recipe involves a stuffing made with bread -- ideally the typical Maltese bread Ħobż Malti -- as well as bacon, garlic, parsley, and sometimes wedges of hardboiled egg -- all stuffed inside good quality beefsteaks pounded thin. The bragioli are then garnished with sautéed onions, carrot and bay leaves, and slowly braised in a robust local red wine.

Click "read more" for the recipe.