Steak pizzaiola

This is the first time I’ve cooked steak pizzaiola. Before this week, I had no idea what steak pizzaiola is. I first heard about it when watching Guga on Sous Vide Everything.

Dedicated to Guga from Sous Vide Everything and my dear friend GC

Two sources of impeccable information

Pronouncing steak pizzaiola

I asked GC how is pizzaiola pronounced. “It’s basically pizza-yoh-lah or pizza-your-la if you want more of an Aussie twang to it 😉

“It means steak ‘pizza-style’ pretty much. So a pizzaiolo is someone who is trained in the art of proper pizza making and I presume it’s used as an adjective here to describe the steak due to its thin flat nature and that the sauce is akin to a pizza.”

So there you have it. I looked up a few recipes on-line and there are passionate feelings about how to cook steak pizzaiola. Some recipes use cherry tomatoes, others add capers and Kalamata olives. I’ve elected tonight to use tinned tomatoes rather than fresh ones and I’ve decided to add some capers and olives.

I also bought some ‘fresh’ pasta from the supermarket. I nearly used Chinese noodles but I thought I should try to be a little more authentic and genuine. Maybe, another time, given my love of a fusion cooking I’ll make this Italian dish with Chinese noodles.

Yummy Lummy is not sponsored by anyone.

Recipe

It’s important to read the recipe before cooking because the timing of processes needs to be understood.

Print

Steak pizzaiola with fresh linguine and sous vide eye fillet steak

Prep Time

30 mins

Cook Time

2 hrs

Faffing

30 mins

Total Time

3 hrs

 

Steak pizzaiola with fresh garlic linguine and sous vide eye fillet steak. My first time.

Course: Main Course

Cuisine: Australian, Italian

Keyword: Eye fillet steak, Linguine, Sous vide, Steak pizzaiola

Servings: 2 Hungry adults

Calories: 500 kcal

Author: Gary

Ingredients

Steak

• Eye fillet steak
• Iodised salt
• Black whole peppercorns
• Butter

“Pizza” topping

• Fresh peeled and diced tomatoes or a can of uncooked peeled tomatoes
• Olive oil
• Garlic
• Basil leaves
• Red chilli flakes
• Oregano dried
• Kalamata olives
• Capers
• Iodised salt
• Black whole peppercorns

Italian “noodles”

• Fresh linguine

Instructions

Steak

1. Spend about five minutes in the supermarket looking for a suitable cut of steak. Assess whether to use a rib fillet bone in, porterhouse, scotch rib fillet, or eye fillet steak.
2. Choose the eye fillet steak because of the relative lack of fat and relatively small size.
3. When you get home, remove the environmentally unfriendly plastic packaging and bind each piece with some cooking twine to shape them into discs or medallions of meat.
   
4. Season the meat with salt and pepper and then seal in a vacuum bag.
   
5. Refrigerate for a few hours to allow the seasoning to penetrate the meat.
   
6. Heat up the water bath to 57 °C and cook the meat for 2 hours.
7. At the end of 2 hours, remove the meat from the water bath and put the bagged meat into the refrigerator to reduce the surface temperature of the meat a few degrees so when the cast-iron skillet searing begins the juicy tender flesh doesn’t overcook.
8. When you’re ready to sear, heat up the cast-iron skillet.
9. Remove the meat from the bag and pat dry the meat with absorbent paper.
10. Add a little Queensland nut oil to the skillet and watch it smoke a little.
11. Sear the meat and turn frequently to avoid the meat heating too much.
12. Once you get a good sear on the surface of the meat allow the meat to rest in a warm place.
    
13. When the meal is ready to plate up, use a sharp carving knife and slice the steak.

“Pizza” topping

1. Heat up a non-stick (PFOA-free) skillet to a low to moderate heat and add in some olive oil.
2. Sauté some garlic and onion in the oil until the garlic begins to take on some colour.
3. Add the tin of tomatoes which took me five full minutes to select at the supermarket because I was bewildered by the selection.
4. Add in the the capers, kalamata olives, dried oregano, dried basil leaves, and red chilli flakes.
5. Season with freshly ground iodised rock salt and black whole peppercorns (ground in a mortar with a pestle).
6. Allow the sauce to simmer for about 15 minutes so it reduces a little.
   

Linguine

1. Boil a saucepan of water.
2. Add the fresh linguine and bring to the boil for 3–4 minutes.
3. Drain the Italian noodles and keep some of the pasta water.
4. Heat a non-stick skillet to a low to moderate heat and add some olive oil.
5. Sauté thinly sliced garlic until it takes some colour.
6. Add in the linguine and toss around to coat the pasta in the garlicky olive oil.
7. Season with some salt and pepper.
8. Add a little pasta water to keep the pasta separated.
9. Transfer the pasta to a bowl.
   

Plating up bit

1. Add slices of steak on top of the linguine.
2. Spoon the pizza sauce on top of the meat and pasta.
3. Add some shaved parmesan cheese.
   

Blogging bit

1. Shoot a photograph.
2. Eat the meal.
3. Wash the dishes (hint, wash as you cook, it makes life easier).
4. Write the recipe.
5. Write the blog post.
6. Hit publish and hope this blog post gets shared on Twitter, Facebook, and Pinterest.

Recipe Notes

Disclaimer I have no culinary training nor qualifications. This post is not intended to convey any health or medical advice. If you have any health concerns about anything you read, please contact your registered medical practitioner. The quantities are indicative. Feel free to vary the quantities to suit your taste. I deliberately do not calculate the energy for dishes. I deliberately default to 500 Calories or 500,000 calories because I do not make these calculations.

Photographs

This is a gallery of photographs. Click on one image and then scroll through the photographs. I’ve been told the gallery doesn’t always work on older versions of Windows Internet Explorer. I suggest Google Chrome or using a Mac.

Questions and answers

How was your first experience of steak pizzaiola?

It was pretty good. The sauce was great. The steak was moist, juicy, and tender. The linguine was yummy. All together, the whole meal worked. I really understand how this means steak pizza or meat pizza. I assume it would work with other red meat too.

Is there anything you would change to the steak pizzaiola?

I think if I was at my goal weight I’d make some garlic bread too. I reckon the sauce on garlic bread would be fantastic.

Tomorrow for lunch I might heat up some of the leftover sauce and make some garlic bread.

What other sort of pasta would you try?

I have this feeling that this would work with soba noodles. It would make a great fusion dish and I could eat it with chopsticks.

Final thoughts

• Have you tried steak pizzaiola?
• What’s your favourite cut of steak? Would you have gone with the eye fillet steak?
• What pasta would you have chosen?

Sponsorship

Yummy Lummy has no sponsors but maintaining a blog isn’t free. If anyone or any company would like to contribute please contact me.