Beef Roulades with Walnut Parsley Pesto


Beef Roulades with Walnut Parsley Pesto

Roulades, pinwheels, whatever you call them, this is a classic party dish. When I was a boy, my mum used to make these for our Christmas Eve smorgasbord, where they took their place alongside Swedish meatballs and huge plates of cold cuts, cheeses, pickles and such. Some years she’d serve them with Hollandaise sauce, which made them very, very rich even for a little kid.

Mum’s version didn’t use pesto. Her filling was just parsley and garlic salt. But with those two ingredients already in the mix, it’s only a step away from a full-fledged pesto—especially the classic winter pesto of parsley and walnuts.

Beef Roulades with Walnut Parsley Pesto

This is not mum’s exact recipe, but it comes close: Super tender meat, smoky, fatty bacon and an intense hit of parsley in the center. Even though I last ate these close to 30 years ago, I can still remember that parsley. It was so “adult” when I was a kid.

My addition of the pesto, with the walnuts and cheese, makes my version as rich as mum’s, only without the Hollandaise. I do like a squeeze of lemon on the roulade right at the table.

Making these roulades isn’t hard, but it requires a little dexterity to secure the roulade with the kitchen twine. Once the roulade is tied, however, it’s pretty sturdy.

Don’t skimp on the tenderizing process at the beginning of this recipe. Flank steak can be very chewy, so you will want to pound it well, and a meat mallet’s tenderizing side is a good finishing step. If you don’t have a meat mallet, use the point of a sharp knife to pierce the meat all over.


Beef Roulades with Walnut Parsley Pesto Recipe

You can use prosciutto instead of the bacon (no need to cook, it's already cured), or skip it all together and just do a roll-up with the pesto of your choice.

Ingredients

Pesto:

  • 1 cup chopped parsley
  • 1/2 cup shelled walnuts, about 1 3/4 ounces
  • 1/4 cup grated parmesan or pecorino cheese
  • 2 garlic cloves, roughly chopped
  • 1/4 teaspoon salt
  • 1/4 cup olive oil

Flank steak roulade:

  • 1/2 pound thin-cut bacon
  • 1 1/2 to 1 3/4 pounds flank steak
  • Salt and black pepper
  • Lemon wedges to serve


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