Grilled Steak with Balsamic Madeira Reduction with a Baked Ricotta Parmigiana Mousse over Grilled Eggplant and Tomato Sorbet

I want to win a week in one of your Tuscany villas! A chance to be in Tuscany in a beautiful villa where I can shop and eat all of the delicious food that Tuscany has to offer? This recipe is entered in a competition to win a week in a Tuscan Villa!! A dream come true! For today’s meal, I am sharing with you a Grilled Steak with Balsamic Madeira Reduction with Baked Ricotta Parmigiana Mouse over Grilled Eggplant and Tomato Sorbet. I first had a steak prepared like this in Florence, the winter of 2011 and boy, would I love to have it there again! I made a delicious baked cheese mousse to go with the steak (just because I love cheese), some fresh grilled eggplant (because we need our veggies!) and a lovely, light Tomato Sorbet, a perfect palate cleanser. Enjoy!

Tomato Sorbet

3 large tomatoes

1 cup of granulated sugar

Clean and chop your tomatoes. Add the chopped tomatoes to a medium size container and put in the freezer for an hour and a half. Take them out, add to a food processor and mix on high until thoroughly blended. Prepare a medium size pot over medium heat and slowly pound in the tomato mix. Add the sugar and mix until blended. Pour the tomato sugar mix back into your container and put in the freezer for four hours. Serve with a garnish of fresh basil.

Baked Ricotta Parmigiana Mousse

¾ cup of ricotta cheese

5 tbsp. grated parmigiana

1 ½ tbsp. salt

1 ½ tbsp. pepper

1 ½ tbsp. crushed red pepper

1 tbsp. garlic powder

2 tbsp. Italian seasonings

1 egg

4 small ramekins

2 tbsp. olive oil

Pre-heat your oven to 350 degrees. In a medium size bowl, mix the ricotta until smooth. Add the parmigiana, salt, pepper, crushed red pepper, garlic powder, Italian seasonings. Taste for flavor, if you want to add more seasoning, go ahead! Once it seasoned to your liking, add the egg and mix until combined.  Using the 2 tbsp. of olive oil, oil your ramekins and fill with the ricotta parmigiana mix. Bake in the oven for 20-30 minutes or until completely set. Take them out and let them cool for 10 minutes before serving.

Grilled Eggplant

1 medium size eggplant

4 tbsp. olive oil

1 tbsp. salt

1 tbsp. pepper

1 tbsp. Italian seasonings

Clean and cut your eggplant into slices. Prepare a pan over medium heat. Add the olive oil, salt, pepper and Italian seasonings directly to the pan. Add the eggplant slices, flip them after 20 minutes or until slightly crispy. Once flipped, cook for another 15 minutes.

Grilled Steak with Balsamic Madeira Reduction

1 tbsp. peanut oil

1 ¼ pound prime boneless strip steak

2 tbsp. olive oil

1 tbsp. smoked salt

1 tbsp. pepper

Prepare a cast iron skillet over medium heat. Add the peanut oil and allow to heat for around 3-4 minutes. Rub your steak with olive oil, smoked salt and pepper. Add to the skillet and cook on one side until medium rare, around 6 minutes, flip and allow to cook for another 6-7 minutes. Turn off the pan and move the steak to a plate to settle.

Balsamic Madera Reduction

6 tbsp. balsamic vinegar

½ cup of Madeira

Add the balsamic vinegar and Madeira to the cast iron skillet with the remaining liquid from the meat. Cook over medium heat until slightly thick and syrupy.

Assembling your plate:

Plate a circle of eggplant on your plate and place the Ricotta Parmigiana Mousse on top. Add a few slices of steak to the plate and glaze with some of the Balsamic Madeira Reduction. In a small cup on the side, scoop out some of the Tomato Sorbet and add a fresh leaf of basil. Buon Appetito!

Steak with Aged Balsamic Reduction, Garlic Mashed Citrus Cauliflower and Sauteed Broccoli Rabe

When my mother and I were in Florence recently, one night we had a lovely dinner right off of Piazza della Repubblica. I went for the tortellini with mushrooms and my mother went for a classic Italian dish…steak with aged balsamic vinegar. I haven’t had steak that much, as I’ve mentioned, I use to be a vegetarian. But when I do have a craving for a steak….I want a really good one. 

When the steak came to the table, I couldn’t believe how amazing it smelled. Sounds simple enough, right? Steak with aged balsamic vinegar, nothing too special. Think again. It’s always the simplest dishes that taste that most impressive I find the ones with the fewest ingredients. The steak was just perfect. Now, I’m a little weird….I don’t like my meat rare or medium, I like it medium well. I know, I know. A lot of people tell me that I’m ruining a really good steak cooking it that much and I do apologize to all of the meat purists out there, this is just my preference.

When I got back home, I was determined to make an equally satisfying steak. The key is having a good cut of meat and a really high quality aged balsamic vinegar. Lucky for me, I got quite a few bottles of the good stuff in Italy!! I served the steak with garlic mashed citrus cauliflower and sautéed broccoli rabe, this is my version of an Italian classic steak house dinner. Enjoy!!

Italian Steak Dinner

Steak with Aged Balsamic Reduction

Steak

3 tbsp. olive oil

2 tbsp. grey sea salt (you can use any salt you want, I love the taste of grey)

4 steaks (you could go with any cut that you like, I went with filet mignon), at room temperature

Prepare a heavy fry pan over medium heat. Add canola oil to pan. Sprinkle the 2 tbsp. of grey sea salt over the pan. The salt is going to act as a base for the steak to sit on. It will add a nice crust to the steak as well. Put the steaks on top of the salt. Cook on each side for 2-5 minutes (depending how rare or well done you like your steak!). Take the steaks out of the pan and allow to rest for 10 minutes. In the meantime…prepare the balsamic reduction.

Aged Balsamic Reduction

¼ cup aged balsamic vinegar

Add the ¼ cup aged balsamic vinegar to the fry pan. It will mix with the leftover liquid from the steak. Cook on low-medium heat until the sauce is bubbling and slightly reduced. Serve immediately drizzled over the steaks.

Mashed Garlic Citrus Cauliflower

4 cloves of garlic

1 cup of olive oil

1 head of citrus cauliflower, if you can’t get citrus, you can use regular cauliflower

2 tbsp. salt

1 tbsp. pepper

Prepare a medium size glass ramekin with 4 cloves of peeled garlic, pour the olive oil over it. Cook in the oven on 350 degrees for at least 45 minutes or until the garlic is roasted.

Chop your cauliflower, removing the base and any of the leaves. You don’t need to really cut it, just cut it enough so it fits in the pot. Put in a deep pot over high heat and fill with water. Add 1 tbsp salt. Cook until the cauliflower is soft enough to mash, at least 25 minutes. Drain the water and mash the cauliflower, I like to do a rough mash just using a fork. Add 1 tbsp. salt, pepper and the roasted garlic and olive oil. Using an electric hand mixer, mix. You want the garlic to break down a little in the cauliflower and you want to olive oil to mix as well.

Sautéed Broccoli Rabe

3 tbsp. olive oil

2 cloves of garlic, chopped

1 tbsp. salt

1 tbsp. pepper

1 tbsp. crushed red pepper

1 bunch of broccoli rabe, blanched

Prepare a medium size pan over medium heat. Add olive oil, garlic, salt, pepper and crushed red pepper. Allow the garlic to brown slightly, around 5 minutes. Add blanched broccoli rabe, toss and cook for 10 minutes. You don’t want to overcook the broccoli rabe and end up with mush! You want to keep it nice and crisp!