Back in high school on Fridays during Lent students were subjected to a strange dish in the school cafeteria that still leaves scars to this day. Maybe that’s why I’ve never been interested in a very popular local dish, the Sicilian Italian specialty known as Briacole.
The dish in high school was a big vat of red sauce with hard boiled eggs floating around. Braciole is a roulade of tough but tenderized beef rolled around hard boiled eggs, breadcrumbs, and herbs. This roll is tied and submerged in marinara for hours to further tenderize it. Spaghetti or angel hair pasta is served with it.
The egg offense is so big with me that I have only had Braciole once, maybe at The Peppermill. It was fine but not good enough to seek it out again, until last Wednesday when I went to TANA to have the Wednesday special. Michael Gulotta is an excellent chef, but he is prone to whimsical interpretations of dishes, like slipping some cherries in an olive salad. Huh? I was intrigued to see if there would be any surprises in his Braciole. Since I don’t have any attachment to this dish, “interpretations” wouldn’t be a problem.
When I arrived at TANA I was immediately reminded of another surprise about the place. It annoys me. The restaurant business is tough enough that a policy of annoying your customers seems odd. I sat in the bar at a small table and ordered the Braciole, which I was soon informed qualified me to sit only in the main dining room or at the bar on a bar stool. For some reason, at TANA, there are strict rules about food that can be consumed and where. I was stuck with a terrible memory of Happy Hour with Tom there, where even the manager instructed me to move Tom from a table to the bar if we wanted to expand our order to include anything from the regular menu. I chose not. They lost an additional $50 revenue because I had no intention of inconveniencing my clearly disabled husband in that way. Huh?
After considering my choices to eat in the dining room or on a bar stool. I moved to the bar stool. This was my first time dining solo on a bar stool. With only a glass of water instead of a cocktail or wine, I felt even sillier. I was grateful to be offered some bread after I ordered, and I was happy to see that Michael is still making his own twisted and seeded Italian bread. These little loaves are delicious and served with some kind of butter and olive oil. It used to be olive oil with Parmesan cheese, but this evening it was peperonata that had a little kick to it. And the butter was smoky, which was a little distracting.
The Braciole came, and I expected to see a hunk of beef, or the roll with a hard boiled egg inside, but it was mostly marinara over angel hair with little bits of meat. While I was initially disappointed, this was such a spectacular plate of food there was no quibbling to be done. I savored every mouthful from the very first one. To start, it was piping hot, something rare. And it was so sublime I didn’t want to wait for it to cool. Even the pasta itself was extraordinary. It seemed to be coated in oil, and rather than it being a detriment, it definitely added something to the bite. The sauce was luscious, thick and totally classic. I thought I might be swooning as I ate it.
There was very little meat on the plate, but it was all so terrific I didn’t really mind. I will ask next time because I do want to try the real thing. The bits of meat I had were so tender I found it hard to imagine this was meat that ever had to be tenderized. The waitress told me it had simmered for six hours. That surprised me because the sauce was fresh rather than dark and sweet. Quite an accomplishment.
One of Tom’s cardinal rules was broken here: he always said to ask the price of any special because it would always be more than a regular menu item. But it didn’t matter to me because I had gone specifically for the Braciole. I was still surprised by the bill. It was $36 for a plate of angel hair and marinara, with shreds of Braciole.
And I don’t care at all, because it was the most delicious plate of Italian food I have had in recent memory, and maybe in a very long memory. It was exactly as I had hoped, Micahel Gulotta cooking the food of his ancestors, the classic way, updated to 2025. Bellissimo!
