The recipe for the Sicilian-style “falsomagro” – rather mysterious for non-Siculians, so much so that we challenge you not to immediately go looking for images or videos on Youtube that concern it – represents a typical holiday dish . A rich and tasty meat-based second course that finds space in festive menus not only for Easter lunch , but also for Christmas and New Year's. Nonna's fake magro is an institution of Sicilian cuisine : it is eagerly awaited on all the most important occasions.
How to cook the Sicilian “falsemagro”.
The Sicilianfalsomagro is quite simple to make: it is nothing more than a rich roll of stuffed meat which is enriched with cured meats, boiled eggs and cheese , as well as with a mixture of minced meat. It can be prepared with sauce , as we will see below, or plain , and in this case it is generally served with oven-cooked potatoes.
Ingredients of the “falsomagro” with sauce
- 1 slice of beef of 800 g
- 400 ml of tomato puree
- 1 carrot
- 1 stick of celery
- 1 onion
- ½ glass of red wine
- Approximately 150ml of water
- extra virgin olive oil
- salt and pepper
Stuffing ingredients
- 300 g of minced beef
- 2 boiled eggs
- 100 g of caciocavallo cheese
- 100 g of sliced mortadella or salami
- 30 g of grated parmesan
- 3 tablespoons of breadcrumbs
- fresh parsley
- salt and pepper
Preparation of the Sicilian-style “falsemagro”.
- Start with the filling : mix the minced meat with the Parmesan and the breadcrumbs. Add the chopped fresh parsley and season with salt and pepper.
- Place the slice of meat on the work surface: beat it with a meat tenderizer and make sure it has a rectangular shape.
- Spread the minced meat mixture on top, leaving a cm free from the edges, creating an even layer.
- Distribute the mortadella (or salami), the caciocavallo cheese and the sliced hard-boiled eggs.
- Roll up the meat and tie the ends with kitchen twine. Keep it aside.
- Prepare the gravy . Chop the carrot, celery and onion and fry them in a large pan with extra virgin olive oil.
- Brown the finomagro in a separate pan with a little oil on all sides to seal the meat well. Do not pierce it with a fork but handle it with ladles.
- Transfer it to the pan with the sautéed vegetables, let it infuse well and add the tomato puree, wine and water.
- Once the alcohol has evaporated, cook for 30-40 minutes on a low flame until the sauce thickens.
- Turn off the flame, let it rest for about ten minutes or more, then serve in slices.
The variants of the Sicilian “falsemagro”.
Catania-style, Ragusa-style , each province boasts its own personal interpretation of the dish. For the series "Country you go, recipe you find", below we mention three of the most famous.
The aggressored (aggered) fake skinny
Falsomagro is said to be aggrasato or, better, agglastato, when the cooking sauce becomes so thick as to become a sort of glaze for the roll.
The reverse false skinny
It's a recent variant presented on TV by chef Potenzano who, to prepare it, used pork tenderloin, and potatoes, mushrooms and peas to accompany it.
Bruciuluni alla Palermitana
It is none other than the name by which, in the Palermitan dialect, we mean the “falsemagro”. Same meat roll cooked in gravy, same super fulfilling experience.
Photo | Jim Holmes OH , CC BY 2.0 , via Wikimedia Commons
