An Italian Roast Dinner!

Here’s the ingredients: Fine meat, great wine, fun friends! To be just a little more specific, here is the core ingredient:

* WARNING*: the following image is rated EXMO (Extreme Meat-lovers Only) and it’s not suitable for Vegans and Vegetarians alike…

When it comes to roast dinners, Italians favor simplicity. What could be better than grilled-to-perfection T-bone (what we call Fiorentina) or Rib-eye, crunchy roast potatoes, a green salad and some Barossa Valley shiraz?

My Top Tips on steak:

1. Forget about lean meat for once. Indulge and enjoy the marbling of fat throughout your rib-eye or T-bone knowing that as it roasts, the fat will render out thus basting the meat, keeping it succulent and juicy, and also  creating that irresistible, savory ,charcoaley crust.

2. Take the meat out of the fridge 20 minutes before cooking.

3. Broil on a white-hot griddle pan or bbq

4. Don’t keep turning it. Only flip once. (Sorry Heston!)

5. Allow to rest for half its cooking time before you carve.

In our house, we like to rub the meat with freshly ground white peppercorns and salt flakes, but you can be even more adventurous and make a rub with ground fennel seeds and black pepper, or cayenne pepper and cumin, the combinations are endless and almost always great.

We like our steak on the rare side of medium-rare (well, in fact I like it extremely rare, but Richard is a little more conservative and I’m happy to compromise!). To achieve our desired result, we tend to grill a 2 cm (1 inch) thick steak for approximately 4 minutes on one side and 3 minutes on the other and we rest it for about 4 minutes.

If you like it on the medium side of medium-rare, grill for 5 and 5 and rest for, 4 to 5 minutes.

If you like it medium, 6 and 4,  plus 5 minutes resting time should do the trick.

If you like it well-done, well…I don’t know what to say to you… I don’t think I have ever cooked a well-done steak in my life!

In my world, a succulent steak’s best buddy has to be crunchy potatoes. And plenty, please! This is my favorite way to pan fry  them to a crisp crust and a soft inside. A green salad to freshen up the palate is in order too. The other day I picked some rocket (arugula) leaves and peas out of my garden, added some store-bought asparagus, and coated the glistening green goodies with EVOO, lemon juice and shredded mint.

Lunch is ready! Who’s bringing the wine?

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