Wagyu Strip Steak Tagliata with Arugula

Steak Tagliata—tagliata is slice in Italian—is a popular method of preparing and serving steak in Tuscany. The meat, charred or seared on the outside and pink if not red on the inside, is served sliced and drizzled with top-quality olive oil, which creates a sauce along with the meat's juices.

Wagyu beef—steaks from special breeds of Japanese cattle, uniquely raised, with uncanny marbling and tenderness—is well-suited to this simple, pre-sliced presentation. Allen Brothers ships Wagyu beef throughout the US. Of course, given Wagyu beef's prohibitive cost, you can certainly substitute a prime strip steak.

Makes 2 6-oz servings.

Ingredients:

one 12-ounce Wagyu beef strip steak
1 tablespoon unsalted butter (if sauteing)
1 teapsoon olive oil (if sauteing)
your favorite olive oil, to drizzle
1.5 cups arugula
1 teaspoon fresh rosemary, finely chopped
1/2 lemon, juiced
a couple "peels" Parmigiano-Reggiano
sea salt, to taste
freshly-ground black pepper, to taste

Remove the steak from refrigeration 30 minutes before cooking.

Generously season the steak with sea salt and black pepper. You can grill or saute the steak.

To grill: Bring a grill to medium-high heat. For medium-rare, sear the steak about 3 minutes per side, touching it only once, to turn.

To saute: In a skillet over medium heat, add the butter and teaspoon of olive oil and melt. When the butter begins to smoke add the steak. For medium-rare, cook 3 minutes per side.

Remove steak to cutting board and let rest for 5 minutes.

Meanwhile, in a mixing bowl combine the arugula and lemon juice. Add sea salt and black pepper, to taste. Drizzle a little olive oil over the arugula. Top with the Parmigiano-Reggiano (you can peel it by running a swivel vegetable peeler over a hunk of the cheese).

Slice the steak against the grain and on a bias into 10 or so strips. Arrange on a warm plate, with the arugula salad to the side. Sprinkle the rosemary over the steak. Drizzle olive oil over the steak. Serve immediately.

Mushroom Soup

In the vein of Martini House, this soup is all about the mushrooms. My approach combines fresh, earthy mushrooms with the intensity and woodsiness of dried ones. The dish has rich mushroom flavor, with a little cream and brandy as icing. This is a great first course, particularly in the winter, but I can eat the whole pot any meal, any season.

Mushroom Soup

Makes about six servings.

Ingredients:

2 tablespoons unsalted butter
1 pound white button mushrooms, cleaned and sliced
1 pound shiitake mushrooms, cleaned and sliced
2 ounces dried mushrooms, preferably an assortment of morels and black trumpets
2 cups warm water, for soaking
1 medium leak, white part only, sliced into 1/4-inch chunks, washed, and dried
1 large yellow onion, 1/4-inch dice
4 garlic cloves, smashed and minced
herb sachet with 6 sage leaves and stems, 3 sprigs thyme, 2 sprigs rosemary, and 1 bay leaf, wrapped in a cheese cloth and tied shut with cooking twine
1/3 cup brandy, preferably cognac
3 cups chicken stock
1 cup heavy cream
sea salt, to taste
freshly-ground white pepper, to taste
1 tablespoon fresh thyme, for garnish

Inspect the dry mushrooms, removing any grit. Place the dried mushrooms and warm water in a bowl. Let soak for at least 30 minutes. Remove the mushrooms, squeezing out as much excess water as possible. Strain the soaking water through a cheesecloth or coffee strainer and into a second bowl. Reserve.

To clean the fresh mushrooms, gently scrub with a wet paper towel or scrape with a pairing knife. Pat dry. In any recipe, particularly where you are going to saute, you want to avoid rinsing your fresh mushrooms.

In a large dutch oven over medium heat, add the butter and melt. Once bubbling, add the onions, leaks, and a pinch of sea salt and cook, stirring, about 4 minutes, until the onion and leeks are soft and translucent but not brown.

Add the garlic, fresh mushrooms, and reconstituted mushrooms. Be careful of splatter if the reconstituted mushrooms are damp. Raise the heat to medium-high. Add freshly-ground white pepper to taste. Be hesitant to add more salt at this point, unless you have a really good feel for your stock. Cook, stirring, for about 10 minutes. The mushrooms should sweat most of their liquid, which will then evaporate, and deflate.

Add the herb sachet—don't worry, it won't burn. Stir it around in any remaining liquid and butter to infuse for about a minute.

Carefully add the brandy. Let it cook down until it glazes the vegetables, about 2 minutes.

Stock added and simmering

Add the chicken stock and mushroom water. Raise heat to high and bring the contents to a boil. Once boiling, lower heat and simmer, uncovered and stirring occasionally, for 20 minutes.

Purée the soup with an immersion blender …

… until it reaches the desired consistency

Remove from heat and, carefully, use an immersion blender to finely purée the soup.

Add the cream …

… and stir to incorporate

Add the heavy cream and adjust seasoning to taste. Stir.

Plated, Garnished, and Ready to Eat

Serve in warm soup bowls with garlic croutons and fresh thyme. You can make garlic croutons by modifying my roast garlic bruschetta recipe—use stale bread if possible, bake until crispy, and then cut into big chunks. Optionally garnish with a morel mushroom, sauteed in butter.

Map of Napa Valley Sights

I put together this Google Map of Napa Valley sights for our trip, and thought I would share—it features the restaurants, wineries, and markets I favor.

Napa Valley Dinner

A light Napa dinner, built from Dean and Deluca, including jamón ibérico de bellota:

Happy Fourth!

Roasted Bone Marrow

I don't know where I first had bone marrow as an appetizer, but I do remember where I fell in love with it: Craigie Street Bistrot (now Craigie on Main). Marrow is not a popular dish in America, aside from making stock, but it is so simple, so cheap, and so delicious, I implore you to try cooking with it.

Makes about four servings.

Ingredients:

10 pieces of beef marrow bones, each about two inches long
1 shallot, chopped
1/2 cup Italian parsley, chopped
about 1 tablespoon fresh-squeezed lemon juice
4 or more slices thick-cut rustic bread, grilled
fleur de sel, to taste

Preheat oven to 450°F. Place bones, marrow-side up, on a tinfoil-lined baking sheet and place in oven. Cook until marrow is soft, but before it renders and oozes out, about 15 minutes.

Meanwhile, combine shallot, parsley, and just enough lemon juice that the shallot and parsley is covered.

Serve bone marrow, the shallot-parsley salad, and a dish of fleur de sel. To eat, scoop out a bit of the marrow using a small fork or spoon and spread over a toast point along with a little salad and a pinch of fleur de sel.

Tapenade du Loup

Tapenade is a lovely Provençal hors d’œuvr consisting of puréed olives, capers, and olive oil, often mixed with anchovy or fresh basil. Store bought tapenade is, as these things tend to be, four times the expense yet not half the flavor compared to this simple homemade recipe, which ditches the traditional anchovies but adds toasted pine nuts.

Makes about one and a half cups of spread.

Ingredients:

1 cup Kalamata olives, pitted, rinsed, and dried
1/2 cup extra virgin olive oil
2 tablespoons pine nuts, toasted
1.5 tablespoons salt-packed capers, rinsed and dried
1 clove garlic, peeled
1 teaspoon lemon zest, finely-grated
18 leaves fresh basil
sea salt, to taste
freshly-ground black pepper, to taste

Combine all of the ingredients, except the oil, salt, and pepper, in a medium-sized food processor. Purée, slowly drizzling in the olive oil. You will likely use all of the oil, but stop if the mixture becomes excessively oily. Continue mixing until the spread becomes a paste, occasionally stopping to scrape down the sides, about a minute or two.

Taste, and adjust seasoning. As the olives and capers are salty, even after rinsing, you might not need any salt.

Serve with toasted rustic bread.

Photos of Braised Short Ribs

Photos to accompany the recipe red wine braised short ribs:

Short ribs browning

Vegetables browned and ribs added back to the pot

Bringing the ribs, vegetables, and liquid to a boil before sticking in the oven

Short ribs reserved to a plate

The braising liquid, vegetables, and aromatics, with the meat reserved

Reducing the braising liquid

Red wine braised short ribs plated with creamy polenta and brussels sprouts