This is a beautiful recipe with a mixture of amazing flavors. Tender beef with red peppers, pasta, garlic, arugula and lots more to tempt your taste buds.

This recipe comes to us via TheFoodInMyBeard.com. The name alone cracks me up.

Check it out!

Steak Gorgonzola Fettuccine

Roasted Red Peppers.
Put 2 red peppers under the broiler. Rotate every 2 minutes so they get blackened on all sides. Wrap in paper bag or paper towels, and wrap that in plastic wrap. 20 minutes later, unwrap peppers and remove skin. It should slide right off. Also remove seeds and slice peppers into thin strips. Lightly salt and place in bowl for later.

Pasta.
Light a grill. Fill pasta pot with water and bring to boil. In small saucepan, cook 2 cloves of diced garlic, salt, pepper, and red pepper flakes in olive oil. 3 minutes. Add cup of half and half. Cook 5 minutes stirring. Drop pasta. Add gorgonzola or any blue cheese to half and half mixture. Cook (seasoned) steak on the grill (indoors or out) to desired doneness. Coat pasta in sauce and move to a large bowl. Add arugula and roasted red peppers and stir. Serve steak sliced on top.

Photo and recipe courtesy of TheFoodInMyBeard.com.

Steak Bites With Bloody Mary Dipping Sauce

So . . . THIS FRIDAY is Halloween. Are you as ready as I am?

That’s a joke. I’m never ready.

But, at least my kids’ costumes are ready to go and I have purchased the obligatory candy to hand out.

What else do I need?

Well, some Halloween spirit for starters. So here’s something fun to try. It’s alternately creepy and tasty at the same time. Invite some friends over for this treat full of protein before you head out to scour the neighborhood for candy.

Enjoy!

STEAK BITES WITH BLOODY MARY DIPPING SAUCE

Ingredients

• 1 tablespoon extra-virgin olive oil, plus more for drizzling
• 1 small onion, finely chopped
• 1/2 cup vodka
• 2 tablespoons Worcestershire sauce
• 2 teaspoons hot pepper sauce
• 1 cup tomato sauce
• 1 rounded tablespoon prepared horseradish
• Salt and pepper
• 1 1/3 pounds beef sirloin cut into large bite-sized pieces, 1 by 2 inches
• Steak seasoning blend or coarse salt and black pepper
• 6 to 8 inch bamboo skewers

Directions

Heat a small saucepan over medium heat. Add oil and onions and saute 5 minutes. Add vodka and reduce by 1/2. Add Worcestershire, hot sauce, tomato sauce and horseradish. Stir to combine the dipping sauce and return the sauce to a bubble. Add salt and pepper and adjust seasonings.

Heat nonstick skillet over high heat. Coat meat bites lightly in oil. Season with steak seasoning blend or salt and pepper, to taste. Cook the meat until caramelized all over, about 2 minutes on each side. Transfer dipping sauce to a small dish and place at the center of a serving platter. Surround the dip with meat bites and set several bamboo “stakes” or skewers along side meat.

Recipe courtesy of Rachael Ray and foodnetwork.com.

Photo courtesy of foodnetwork.com.

I had heard of braciole (pronounced bra’zhul) before but never really knew how to make it. Truth be told, I’m a huge fan of Everybody Loves Raymond and The Sopranos and there are endless Italian dishes on both of those shows that make me both hungry and curious.

Braciole is one of them. It’s been featured on both of those shows and I could never figure out exactly what it was.

It’s thin, stuffed steak that is rolled. At least, that’s the American version of this Italian treat.

Braciole is actually the plural form of braciola. See, you don’t just eat one of them. So why not just always use the plural form??? (See the braciole Wikipedia entry here.)

I did eventually ask my Italian-cuisine-expert-neighbor Eddie about it one day. And when his mother came to visit they made some and brought it over. It was to-die-for.

It’s good to have good neighbors.

Here’s a great recipe for it so you can try it on your own. Let me know what you think!!!

Braciole (Rolled stuffed steak) – from Chef Carmen Mazzola of A Mediterranean Cooking Experience at Relais Oasi Olimpia.  

Ingredients

• 2 thin slices of steak
• approx. ½ parsley
• 1 clove of garlic
• approx. ½ pine-nuts
• approx. ½ raisins
• a teaspoon of grated parmesan
• 1 can puréed tomato
• extra virgin olive oil
• 1 onion, chopped
• ¾ cup of white wine
• salt & pepper

Preparation

Roll or pound the steak until thin.

Finely chop the parsley and garlic, pine-nuts and raisins, and mix with the grated parmesan, salt and pepper.

Spread on the steak, then roll the steak and fix in place with some toothpicks or butcher’s string.

Brown the rolled meat in a saucepan with extra-virgin olive oil and a chopped onion. Then add white wine and after 5 minutes the tomato purée. Cook over a very low heat for about an hour.

If you prefer, you can omit the raisins and pine-nuts.

Recipe and photo courtesy of theinternationalkitchen.com.