Rib Eye A La Romana

This steak dish was inspired by my recent trip to Rome and I had a lovely dish in a restaurant of beef strips and tomato sauce, so I’m trying to recreate the same flavours with a rib eye steak. I’m calling this dish Rib eye a la Romana, but it’s basically Rib-eye Steak with a Roast Cherry Tomato sauce.

I’ve decided to slow roast a pile of cherry tomatoes, as the slow roasting intensifies the flavours of the tomatoes. I sprinkled over sugar too, that really sweetens them. These roast tomatoes are perfect in sandwiches, pasta, salads etc.

I made this recipe for a big family dinner the other night and included green beans, mushrooms and roast baby potatoes as sides. The only fault I was told was that I didn’t make enough. Not a bad complaint I would think, though a couple of extra spuds wouldn’t have gone astray apparently. But all in all great crowd pleaser. Waiting for the sun to come out again so we can try this on the BBQ.

Anyways, back to the actual star of the show. The quality of beef is paramount. Get it direct from butcher and get nice big rib eyes. Though, of course you may use fillets or sirloins also. I just happen to think the rib eyes are juicy and tender cuts. The second most important step is to marinade the steaks for at the very least 2 hours.

This is where my favourite kinda cooking comes into play. I wasn’t working from a recipe, just from looking at what was in the store cupboard and adding a pinch of this and a dash of that. That goodness for my memory…

Serves 6

Ingredients

·         6 steaks (ribeye is best)

Steak Marinade

·         2 cloves of garlic

·         ½  a white onion

·         1 tbsp of ground black pepper

·         Juice of 1 lemon

·         3 tbsp of  good red wine

·         3 tbsp of olive oil

·         1 tbsp of balsamic vinegar

·         2 tsp of dried oregano

·         1 tsp of chilli flakes

·         Leaves from 4 sprigs of thyme

Roast Cherry Tomatoes

·         20 cherry tomatoes

·         4 cloves of garlic, unpeeled

·         Olive oil spray

·         1 tsp of fine salt

·         1 tsp of caster sugar

·         1 tbp ground black pepper

Roast Thyme, Lemon and Garlic Baby Potatoes

·         Bag of baby potatoes

·         4 cloves of garlic, unpeeled

·         Olive oil spray

·         2 lemons, quartered

·         Leaves from 3 sprigs of thyme

Roast Tomato & Garlic Sauce

·         2 tomatoes, diced

·         10 halves of roast cherry tomatoes

·         1 tbsp of tomato puree

·         1 white onion, diced

·         Garlic squeezed from 4 roast cloves with tomatoes

·         3 tbsp of red wine

·         4 tbsp of olive oil

·         ½ a red chilli, deseeded and diced

·         Juice of half a lemon

·         5 basil leaves, shredded

Method

1.       Firstly, combine all the ingredients for the steak marinade in a mini blender and blitz/or chop by hand.

2.       Put the steaks in a large freezer bag and add the marinade.

3.       Squelch (this, is of course the technical term) around the marinade in the bag with the meat.

4.       Put the bag in the fridge for 3hours (on a plate in case of accidental dripping)

5.       Take the meat out of fridge 30 minutes before cooking (golden rule)

6.       Preheat oven on 140 degrees

7.       Half the cherry tomatoes and place them on a lined baking dish with the garlic cloves.

8.       Sprinkle over the sugar,salt and spray the oil.

9.       Slow roast for 2 hours

10.   To prepare the thyme, lemon and garlic potatoes, simple line a roasting tin.

11.   Throw in the garlic, halved lemons and potatoes and thyme.

12.   Season well and spray with olive oil

13.   Roast in the oven for 1 hour and squeeze the lemons over them before serving.

14.   For the tomato sauce, fry off the onion, garlic, chilli and tomatoes in olive oil.

15.   When the tomatoes have softened add the puree, wine, and lemon juice.

16.   Reduce to an intense sauce and add the 4 tbsp of oil and halved roast tomatoes. (loosen with water if sauce is too thick)

17.   Add the freshly shredded basil leaves and your sauce is ready.

18.   To cook the steaks, get a grill pan roasting hot.

19.   Place the steaks on the grill pan, and turn after 4-5 minutes ( I like medium-rare).

20.   Cook for a further 4 minutes and remove and rest for 6-9 minutes.(Resting your meat is another Golden Rule)

21.   To plate up, place the rested steak in centre of plate and adorn with the tomato sauce and top with remaining roast cherry tomatoes and more basil. Serve your sides separately.

(Tip: this is a great meal for a dinner party as the potatoes can be prepared well in advance, the sides take minutes to cook, the beef marinade is also prepped in advance and the sauce can be cooked earlier and just warmed up and add the cherry tomatoes and basil)

(Tip: Cherry tomatoes can be kept in airtight container for a few days)