Hmmm. Multiple posts featuring grilled New York strip steak. Dear reader, I hope I don’t lose you to boredom.
Then again, my carnivorous audience will not only read, but celebrate!
I typically only eat premium steaks once or twice a month. But it being summer and all, the grill beckons. So instead of roasted potatoes and Caesar salad, enter penne pasta, and broccolini.
For the sauce, in a 2 or 3 quarter pot, I sautéed onion and garlic in good olive oil, added tomato paste, a few pinches of sugar, then minced fennel, and a cup or so of chopped tomatoes from a can with its juices. And importantly, three heaping tablespoons of black truffle sauce from Urbani Truffles in New York.
Season the sauce with salt, black pepper, and dried parsley and basil.
Once that all came together nicely, I added a half cup of homemade chicken stock and a cup of red wine. Covered, and let it simmer on low for about an hour. Then I turned the stove top off, removed he lid to the pot and let it cool for 30 minutes.
Then inserted an inversion blender and made sauce of the mixture. Careful with the inversion blender! I do this on the counter (easier to wipe down than the stove) and also wear an apron! Trust, I have had sauces splatter my clean white T-shirt before.
I made the sauce a couple days before the meal, then heated it up to pour over the cooked and drained pasta.
For the broccolini, steamed, then sautéed in olive oil, garlic, red pepper flake. And salt.
If I were in Italy, no doubt this meal would have gone down nicely with a Super Tuscan, which is a Sangiovese-based blend and typically robust and perfectly dry for such a meal. Instead, we drank a delightful 2018 Petit Verdot from nearby Lambert Bridge. Petit Verdot, as many know, is typically found as a blend in Bordeaux blends, and usually in small percentages, like 5% to 10%. After this meal, and with that wine, I couldn’t help but wonder why we don’t see more Petit Verdot bottles on the shelves of notable wine purveyors. It was a very fine meal and pairing.