Italian | Steak Florentine

Posted on June 5, 2012

This steak was so tasty! I love it and will be making it again and again. I was thrilled to have all of the herbs already growing in my garden making it easy for me to put this dish together. I wrote up the recipe as it appears in Mario's cookbook, but I made about half as much as the recipe called for since I was only feeding two people. The other thing was that I didn't use a 3-inch steak. The biggest the store had was about 1 1/2-inches, so we went with that. It was awesome anyway.

Yield: 4 servings

Ingredients

1 tablespoon chopped fresh rosemary

1 tablespoon chopped fresh sage

1 tablespoon fresh thyme leaves

2 tablespoons kosher salt, plus more to taste

2 tablespoons freshly ground black pepper, plus more to taste

1 T-bone steak, at least 3 inches thick, 3 to 3-1/2 pounds

2 tablespoons pure olive oil

3/4 cup extra-virgin olive oil, preferably Da Vero

6 cloves garlic, thinly sliced

4 pounds baby spinach, stems removed, washed, and spun dry

juice of 1 lemon

1 tablespoon coarse salt

 

Method

Preheat the grill.

In a small bowl, mix together the rosemary, sage, thyme, salt, and pepper until well blended. Pat the steak dry and coat the entire steak with the herb mix. Brush gently with the pure olive oil. Place on the grill and cook until well charred, about 12 minutes on the first side, then cook about 9 minutes on the second side; this is traditionally served rare. (For my 1 1/2-inch steak, I cooked for 7 minutes on the first side, and 4 minutes on the second side and it was not rare enough. Next time I will try 6 and 3 1/2 minutes.) Transfer to a platter and let stand for 8 minutes.

Meanwhile, in a 10- to 12-inch sauté pan, heat 1/4 cup of the extra-virgin olive oil over high heat until smoking. Add the garlic and cook just until light brown. Add the spinach and stir until just wilted. Remove from the heat and add the lemon juice and salt and pepper to taste. Set aside.

Carve the fillet and the strip steak from the bone and slice. Divide the steak among four plates, arrange the spinach next to it, and drizzle with the remaining 1/2 cup extra-virgin olive oil. Season with coarse salt. Serve immediately.

 

(Ref. "T-Bone Fiorentina with Sautéed Spinach" recipe, Molto Italiano.)