Bistecca Alla Fiorentina, by Shelley Lance
Bistecca alla Fiorentina is one of Tuscany’s best-loved dishes. Emily Wise Miller, in The Food Lover’s Guide to Florence, says:
“A fiorentina is simply the T-bone cut (often enormous, enough to serve two), about one and a half inches thick, grilled over charcoal or wood, and always served rare, with just olive oil, salt, and sometimes lemon or rosemary as flavoring. (Asking for a fiorentina well done is like asking a sushi chef to microwave your tuna roll).”
I met the chef Benedetta Vitali at her wonderful restaurant Trattoria Zibibo (more about this later), and she gave me a copy of her book, La Cucina Degli Affetti, with recipes in Italian and English. Her recipe for Bistecca alla Fiorentina is simply and delightfully this:
“The genuine Florentine steak should be cooked on a grill positioned about 10 cm above the embers: first allow a good crust to form on the side next to the embers, which should be very hot, then raise the grill or reduce the heat of the embers. Cook for 3 minutes then turn the steak over and salt the cooked side. When the other side is also cooked, turn it again and salt that side too. Olive wood should be used for fuel and the heat of the embers must remain hot and constant. The fiorentina must be cooked fast (8 minutes if it is 3 cm thick, 10 to 12 minutes for 5 cm) and should be rare done.”
We often saw Bistecca alla Fiorentina on restaurant menus. Whenever someone ordered it, the waiter would trot out a gigantic slab of raw t-bone steak for the diner’s inspection before it was cooked. Since we never got around to ordering it ourselves, we decided to cook up some bistecca on the charcoal grill at our rented villa in the Florence suburbs.
This giant rack of T-bone steak (see photo, top) is what you see in every butcher shop. We drove to the local co-op (large supermarket) and a hip-looking, curly-headed young butcher, complete with tatoos and earring, cheerfully and quickly sliced 3 thick t-bones for us using his cleaver.
Unfortunately, we had no olive wood, but we were able to buy charcoal at the co-op. My husband, Frank, started the fire and we threw bunches of bay leaves on top (which was very fun, but I’m not sure if it added any flavor- see photo second from top and to the right).
Frank salted and peppered the steaks and put them on the grill. Just for good measure, we threw on a few sausages as well. Frank grilled our steaks expertly, removed them from the fire, and we finished them with a drizzle of the excellent Colina Verde olive oil made on the property by Mr. Bencini, the owner. We set out a platter of tomatoes and buffalo mozzarella, Tuscan bread, and steamed asparagus dressed with more olive oil and dined at our big round table under the vine-covered pergola. Of course, we brought out our very best bottles of Vino Nobile di Montepulciano for the feast. Heavenly Tuscany!!!
RSS Subscribe