Flank Steak Roll-Up

All the wonderful Italian flavor of spaghetti, while being a little more grown up. This dish is another great choice for entertaining because the rolled flank steak makes such a pretty plate. Serve it with a hearty caesar salad and you are sure to have a dinner everyone will enjoy. As a kid, every time my mom cooked this meal I thought the tied flank steak looked like a huge sausage or wiener dog (which it totally does before it is cut). For those of you who have seen the movie "For Richer or Poorer" it reminds me of Kirstie Alley's line "Or better yet, I'll just eat this gigantic wiener", when she is served a sausage the size of a football. I am laughing now just thinking about it. Anyways it brings back lots of happy, funny memories.

Serves: 6
Start to Finish: maximum of 2 hours (depending on thickness of steak)
Recipe By: Virginia St. John

Ingredients:

1 1/2 lb. flank steak
3 TBSP butter
1/2 tsp thyme
1/4 tsp sage
4 tsp basil
3 TBSP olive oil
1 (28-oz) can tomatoes Any kind of tomatoes stewed, chopped, diced, etc...
1 (6-oz) can tomato paste
1 cup chopped onion
2 tsp salt
1/4 tsp pepper
1 1/2 tsp chili powder
1 clove garlic, cut in half
1 (12-oz) pkg broad egg noodles
1/4 cup fresh parsley, chopped

Directions:

1. Pound steak flat.
2. Spread one side of steak with butter; then sprinkle with thyme, sage, and basil.
3. Roll as a jellyroll and tie with string. I can never remember to buy string so I just stick a lot of toothpicks in mine and it works equally as well. They only thing you have to remember is to take them all out before you serve the steak or someone is going to be a winner.
4. In a large saucepan, brown rolled flank steak in hot oil.
5. Add tomatoes, tomato paste, onion, salt, pepper, chili powder and garlic.
6. Cover and simmer for a maximum 1 1/2 hours or until meat is cooked. If you have a fat roll it will cook the full time, if you have a skinner roll it will take less time, so check it often for doneness.
7. Remove garlic.
8. Meanwhile, cook noodles in boiling water and drain.
9. Add parsley to noodles.
10. Take steak roll from sauce and remove string.
11. Slice 1/2" thick.
12. Arrange noodles on platter, place rolls on noodles, spoon sauce over and serve.