Italian Sardinian Veal Rolls | Involtini di Vitello alla Sarda
Involtini di vitello alla sarda are thin veal slices rolled around grated Pecorino Sardo and crushed pane carasau, browned in olive oil and braised briefly with Cannonau, rosemary and fresh myrtle leaves. They belong to the pastoral interior of the island rather than to its coast, and they exist to make a small quantity of meat feed a table.
What separates them from the dozens of regional involtini across Italy is the myrtle, and precisely how it is used. It is not chopped, it is not eaten and it never enters the filling. The leaves go under and over the rolls as an aromatic lining, they perfume the meat by contact and by vapour, and then they come out of the pan.
The result tastes of sheep cheese, resin and red wine, with a sauce reduced to a few glossy spoonfuls rather than a gravy. It cooks in half an hour, and the one sure way to ruin it is to treat the myrtle as a herb.
Yield: 4 servings, 8 involtini. Prep: 30 minutes. Cook: 30 minutes. Rest: 5 minutes. Total: about 1 hour 5 minutes. Difficulty: intermediate. Course: secondo piatto. Region: Sardinia, the pastoral interior.
The Story
Sardinia is sheep country before it is anything else, and for most of its history beef and veal were incidental. Cattle were kept inland for work and for milk, in the Montiferru, the Marghine and the Campidano, and a young animal was eaten when circumstances forced the decision rather than when appetite suggested it. The Sardo Modicana and the Bruna Sarda are the old island breeds, and their meat was treated with the respect you give something scarce. Involtini are one result: eight thin slices, a handful of cheese and a crust of leftover flatbread will feed four people in a way that four plain cutlets will not.
The filling tells you where you are. Pecorino Sardo comes from the same flocks that define the island economy, and pane carasau is the shepherd's bread, rolled paper thin and baked twice so it survives months in a saddlebag. Parsley and mint are the everyday green notes of Sardinian kitchens, and the lemon zest reflects the citrus that grows around Muravera and the eastern coast.
Myrtle is the wild element, and it is everywhere. Myrtus communis covers the scrub across the whole island, and Sardinian cooking has used it for centuries in two separate ways. Suckling pig comes off the spit onto a bed of myrtle branches. Gallina al mirto, a boiled hen wrapped in myrtle and left to cool overnight, is one of the oldest dishes in the repertoire, and in both the plant is a wrapping, never a seasoning. Cannonau closes the circle: the island red of Nuoro and the Ogliastra, dark, warm and herbal, poured into the pan and into the glass beside it.
Involtini like these appear at Sunday lunches and village festivals across the Barbagia and the Marmilla, with nothing beside them except more pane carasau to wipe the pan clean.
Ingredients
For the veal
Veal scallopini from the top round, thinly sliced, 1 1/2 lb (680 g), about 8 slices
Fine sea salt, 1/4 tsp (1.5 g), for the outside only
Freshly ground black pepper, 1/2 tsp (1 g)
All purpose flour, 1 tbsp (8 g), for dusting
For the filling
Pecorino Sardo semi stagionato, finely grated, 5 oz (140 g)
Pane carasau, finely crushed, 1 oz (30 g)
Flat leaf parsley, chopped, 3 tbsp (12 g)
Fresh mint, chopped, 1 tbsp (4 g)
Garlic clove, small, roasted and mashed, 1
Finely grated lemon zest, 1 tsp (2 g)
Whole milk, 2 tbsp (30 ml)
Extra virgin olive oil, 1 tbsp (15 ml)
Freshly ground black pepper, 1/4 tsp (0.5 g)
For the braise
Extra virgin olive oil, 3 tbsp (45 ml)
Shallot, small, minced, 1 oz (30 g)
Garlic clove, crushed, 1
Cannonau di Sardegna or another dry red, 1/2 cup (120 ml)
Unsalted veal or chicken stock, 3/4 cup (180 ml)
Rosemary sprig, 1
Lemon peel, 1 wide strip, no pith
For the myrtle lining
Fresh myrtle leaves, on the branch if possible, 16 to 20, removed before serving
For finishing
Lemon juice, 1 tsp (5 ml)
Extra virgin olive oil, cold, 1 tbsp (15 ml)
Flat leaf parsley, chopped, 1 tbsp (4 g)
Freshly ground black pepper, to taste
Preparation
Step 1
Flatten and season the veal. Lay the slices between two sheets of parchment and work them out to an even 1/8 inch (3 mm) with the flat side of a mallet. Season the outside faces only, with the 1/4 teaspoon of salt and the pepper. The inside stays unsalted: the cheese supplies more salt than the meat needs.
Step 2
Mix the filling. Combine the grated Pecorino Sardo, crushed pane carasau, parsley, mint, roasted garlic paste, lemon zest, milk, olive oil and pepper. Leave it 5 minutes so the flatbread takes up the liquid, then squeeze a little between your fingers: it should hold as a soft crumb, not a paste. The crushed carasau is what keeps the filling inside the roll.
Step 3
Fill and roll. Put about 1 1/2 tablespoons (20 g) of filling on the lower third of each slice, leaving a clear margin all round. Fold the two sides inward over the filling, then roll upward, firmly but without crushing. Close each roll with one toothpick through the seam.
Step 4
Dust with flour. Put the flour in a fine sieve and tap the barest veil over the rolls, then pat them to knock off everything loose. Enough to dry the surface for browning and no more. A visible coating turns gluey in the braise and clouds the sauce.
Step 5
Brown the involtini. Heat the 3 tablespoons of olive oil in a wide heavy skillet over medium high heat until it shimmers. Lay the rolls in seam side down, leave them still for 2 minutes, then turn and colour the other faces, about 6 minutes in all. Lift them onto a plate and keep the juices.
Step 6
Build the base and lay the myrtle bed. Drop the heat to medium, add the shallot, garlic, rosemary and lemon peel and cook 2 minutes until the shallot is translucent. Pour in the Cannonau, scrape the fond loose and reduce by half. Then lay 8 to 10 myrtle leaves flat across the pan floor.
Step 7
Braise on the leaves. Add the stock, set the involtini on the myrtle bed with their collected juices and lay the remaining leaves over the top of the rolls. Cover the pan partially and cook over medium low heat for 12 to 14 minutes, turning once halfway. Keep the liquid at a lazy simmer.
Step 8
Remove every leaf, then finish the sauce. Lift out the involtini, then take out all the myrtle, the rosemary, the garlic and the lemon peel, counting the leaves as they come. Reduce the liquid 3 to 4 minutes until it coats a spoon, take the pan off the heat, swirl in the lemon juice and the cold olive oil, and roll the involtini through to glaze.
Plating
Rest the involtini 5 minutes off the heat, and pull the toothpicks at the last moment so the rolls hold their shape. Warm the plates to around 130°F (55°C): the filling is a cheese emulsion and goes waxy on a cold surface within a minute.
Serve two per person, set at a slight angle rather than in a row, and spoon the sauce around the base and never over the top, so the browned surface stays dry. Two or three tablespoons is the whole plate. Scatter the parsley and grind a little pepper over.
To show the interior, cut one roll of the pair on a bias and turn the cut face toward the diner. Beside them put something plain: pane carasau, braised wild greens, or potatoes roasted with rosemary. Never plate a myrtle leaf as decoration. It is not food.
Professional Technique
What defines this dish technically is the use of myrtle as a leaf and not as an ingredient. Sardinia uses the plant in two ways that are constantly confused. The berries are the dark, sweetish, resinous fruit, steeped in alcohol to make mirto liqueur. The leaves are a different material: leathery, waxy and loaded with tannins alongside the aromatic compounds, chiefly myrtenol and myrtenyl acetate, that give myrtle its cool eucalyptus and resin smell. They are not eaten and not cut. They are a lining.
Used properly they work in two directions at once. The leaves on the pan floor sit in hot fat, where the wax softens and the aromatic oils pass by contact into the oil and from there into the underside of the meat. The leaves laid over the rolls never touch the liquid: they are held in the steam under the partial lid, and the vapour carries their perfume down onto the top surface. One route is contact, the other is distillation, which is why the leaves go both under and over. When the braise is done, every leaf comes out before the sauce is reduced.
Two things go wrong when this is misunderstood. The first is chopping the leaves, on the assumption that a herb should be minced fine. Cutting a myrtle leaf ruptures the tannin bearing cells the whole leaf keeps sealed, and those tannins do not smell of anything: they taste bitter and astringent, they bind to the proteins in the meat and the cheese, and they cannot be reduced away. The second is expecting the aroma to travel through water. Myrtenol is fat soluble and close to indifferent to a watery liquid, so a lean braise carries very little of it: the olive oil, the pecorino and the veal itself are what move the perfume into the meat.
Then the cheese, and the rule it imposes. Pecorino Sardo is considerably saltier than the Tuscan pecorini most cooks have to hand, and a semi aged wheel can carry half again as much salt. Five ounces grated into a filling for four is already the full seasoning of the dish. Leave the filling unsalted.
Texture and Moisture Control
The involtino has to arrive browned outside, with veal still tender and a filling soft and creamy that has not escaped. Veal at 1/8 inch (3 mm) is cooked through in a few minutes, so the 12 to 14 minute braise exists not to cook the meat but to bring the centre of the filling to around 150°F (65°C), where grated pecorino softens and binds with the milk and the oil. Push the heat and the cheese fat breaks out and leaves the filling dry and grainy.
Moisture is managed from both sides. Underneath, the rolls sit on leaves rather than on hot metal, which keeps the base from scorching while the liquid reduces. Above, the leaf layer and the partial lid slow evaporation and hold humid air against the top of the meat, so the exposed surface stays supple. A fully sealed lid is wrong: the sauce never reduces and the browning dissolves back into it. The sauce is then finished off the heat, with a swirl, because the cold oil holds as a glossy emulsion only away from the flame.
Professional Mise en Place
Everything except the browning and the final reduction can be in place before service, and the rolls are better assembled ahead: an hour in the refrigerator firms the filling and makes them less likely to open in the pan.
Equipment and tools
Wide heavy skillet with a lid, holding eight rolls without touching
Meat mallet and parchment paper, fine sieve for the flour
Microplane for the pecorino and the lemon zest
Toothpicks, tongs, spoon for the sauce
Prepared ahead
Filling mixed and rested, up to 1 day ahead, covered and refrigerated
Veal flattened and seasoned, up to 4 hours ahead, kept cold
Involtini rolled, pinned and refrigerated, up to 4 hours ahead
Myrtle rinsed, dried and picked, on the day
Shallot, garlic, rosemary and lemon peel ready in one dish
Service setup
Involtini out of the refrigerator 20 minutes ahead
Wine, stock, lemon juice and finishing oil measured out
Plates warming, parsley chopped at the last minute
An empty bowl by the stove for the spent leaves
Chef Tips
Ask for veal from the top round and ask for it thin. A butcher who slices it properly saves most of the pounding, and even slices roll tighter and cook in the same time. Anything thick needs so much flattening that the fibres tear.
Get the myrtle from the plant if you can. Specialists sell it dried, which works, and garden myrtle is the same species. With none at all, use two bay leaves and a short strip of orange peel: a different dish, but an honest one. Never substitute mirto liqueur, which is sweet and turns the sauce to syrup.
Taste the filling before you roll anything, and taste it for salt only. If it is assertive, which good Pecorino Sardo will be, that is correct. If it seems flat, add zest or pepper, not salt.
Brown the rolls in two batches if the pan is crowded. Eight involtini in a skillet that holds six will steam instead of colouring, and you lose the fond that builds the sauce.
Common Mistakes
Chopping the myrtle into the filling. The one mistake that cannot be repaired. Cut leaves release tannins that turn the dish bitter and astringent, and reducing the sauce only concentrates them. The leaves stay whole and line the pan.
Leaving the leaves in when you plate. They are leathery, resinous and unpleasant to bite, and were never meant to be eaten. Count them into the pan and count them out again, as you would a bouquet garni.
Salting the filling. Pecorino Sardo is much saltier than Tuscan pecorino, and five ounces already seasons four servings. Salt the outside of the veal for browning and nothing else, or the reduced sauce turns inedible.
Flouring the rolls heavily. A thick dusting does not help browning and dissolves into the braising liquid, thickening it to paste. Sieve on a veil and pat the excess away.
Boiling instead of simmering. A hard boil bursts the rolls, forces the cheese out through the seams and makes the veal fibrous. Keep the liquid barely moving throughout.
Adding the finishing oil over the flame. The emulsion breaks at once and you get oil floating on wine. The pan comes off the heat first, then the lemon juice and the cold oil.
Wine Pairing
Cannonau di Sardegna DOC: The wine in the pan and the most coherent one in the glass. Its soft, rounded tannin meets the fat of the pecorino without drying the palate, and the dried herb character of a good bottle from Nuoro runs alongside the myrtle rather than against it. Serve at 61°F (16°C).
Campidano di Terralba DOC: A lighter Sardinian red built on Bovale, brighter in acidity and leaner in frame than Cannonau. That acidity is the point: it cuts the reduced sauce and the cheese fat cleanly, and the modest alcohol never overwhelms a thin slice of veal.
Vermentino di Gallura DOCG: The white choice, and a genuine one rather than a concession. Grown on granite in the north of the island, it has a saline bite and firm citrus acidity that answer the salt of the pecorino, while the bitter almond finish picks up the myrtle resin.
Cerasuolo d'Abruzzo DOC: A mainland rosato for anyone who wants neither a full red nor a white. Made from Montepulciano with brief skin contact, it has red cherry fruit, real structure and enough acidity for the lemon in the sauce, and flattens neither the veal nor the cheese.
Alto Adige DOC Pinot Nero: The alternative when the Sardinian bottles are unavailable. Light in tannin, high in acidity and marked by sour cherry and undergrowth, it handles the browned exterior well and its herbal edge sits easily with the rosemary. Serve at 57°F (14°C).
Storage & Reheating
Cooked involtini keep refrigerated in an airtight container for up to 3 days, and are better on the second day, once the myrtle and the wine have settled into the meat. Store the sauce separately, since sitting in it softens the browned surface, and pull every toothpick first.
Reheat gently and with moisture: a small covered pan with two tablespoons of stock over low heat for 6 to 8 minutes, turning once, then the sauce for the last minute only. A microwave drives the cheese fat out and toughens the veal. Never boil the sauce alone, since the cold oil emulsion separates.
Rolled involtini freeze well raw for up to 2 months, separated on a tray before bagging. Brown them from frozen and add 4 minutes to the braise. Do not freeze them cooked: the filling turns granular.
Nutrition
Per serving, based on 4 servings of two involtini each:
Calories: 520 kcal
Total Fat: 33 g
Saturated Fat: 13 g
Trans Fat: 0.4 g
Unsaturated Fat: 18 g
Cholesterol: 150 mg
Sodium: 890 mg
Total Carbohydrates: 9 g
Fiber: 0.6 g
Total Sugars: 2 g
Added Sugars: 0 g
Protein: 45 g
Lactose: 0.6 g
Principal micronutrients: calcium, phosphorus, zinc, selenium, vitamin B12, niacin, vitamin A
These figures are estimates. Sodium is dominated by the Pecorino Sardo and varies widely with the wheel, and most of the alcohol in the Cannonau cooks off.
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