Tagliata con rucola, pomodorini e Parmigiano
What exactly does it mean to eat Italian?
Once, a colleague asked me, “Do you and Stefano eat Italian every day?”
I pondered the question. The short answer is no, we don’t. We grab tacos at our favorite food truck on busy evenings when we don’t have time to cook. We enjoy going out for North African food and Sushi. Sometimes we drop by Matt’s Bar, our hyper-local burger joint, for a Juicy Lucy and a beer.
When we cook at home, though, it is almost exclusively Italian. But, what exactly does that mean?
My colleague probably imagined heaping plates of pasta seven days a week, but on the contrary, we don’t eat pasta all that often. When we do, it’s an indulgence. Stefano’s almost always the chef, and he usually prepares one of Rome’s traditional dishes, an amatriciana or a carbonara, a seasonal treat such as pappardelle ai funghi porcini, or perhaps a seafood pasta, such as linguine alle vongole.
Sometimes “eating Italian” requires going out of our way to source authentic ingredients and food products. But often, “eating Italian” is as simple as how we season, prepare, and pair everyday food.
Take salad, for example. Besides greens, we don’t put much in our salad - maybe just tomatoes and cucumber, when they are in season. And we dress it only with salt, white wine vinegar, and olive oil.
Our Italian approach is also evident in how we season and prepare our proteins. We skip the rubs, marinades, and sauces that line grocery aisles here in the US, opting to season our steak with just a sprinkling of salt and baste our chicken and lamb with a mixture of garlic, rosemary, red pepper flakes, and white wine before tossing them on the grill.
Sometimes, “eating Italian” is as simple as creating the perfect pairing of a few unfussy, flavorful ingredients. La tagliata con rucola, pomodorini e Parmigiano is a perfect example.
Tagliata—which means “cut or sliced” in Italian—typically refers to a seared or grilled cut of beef, often top sirloin or ribeye, cooked to a juicy medium rare. The steak is then thinly sliced and served over a bed of fresh peppery arugula, with sweet cherry tomatoes and generous shavings of Parmigiano-Reggiano. A final touch of flaky sea salt and a drizzle of extra-virgin olive oil bring everything together in this simple, quintessentially Italian dish.
Sometimes, you’ll find the steak prepared with just arugula and cherry tomatoes, and other times with just arugula and Parmigiano. We like it with all three. Give it a try and let us know which version you prefer.
Ingredients
2 servings
2 steaks - Ribeye or New York strip
3-4 cups arugula
10-15 cherry or grape tomatoes
Shaved Parmigiano-Reggiano
Coarse sea salt
Extra-virgin olive oil
Instructions
Grill or sear the steaks to medium-rare, or your preferred doneness.
Transfer the steaks to a cutting board and let them rest for 5 to 10 minutes while you prepare the other ingredients.
Arrange a bed of arugula on each serving plate.
Slice the cherry tomatoes in half and set them aside.
If using a wedge of Parmigiano-Reggiano, shave it into thin slices using a sharp knife or vegetable peeler.
Slice the rested steak thinly, cutting against the grain. Lay the slices over the arugula.
Distribute the halved tomatoes and shaved Parmigiano over the steak.
Finish with a sprinkle of coarse sea salt and a generous drizzle of extra virgin olive oil.
Serve immediately, perhaps with crusty bread and a glass of red wine.
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I adore this dish. And make it on the regular in the summer. And you're so right about the Italian approach to food being more important than any particular dish. it may have something to do with the excellence of Italian produce, which is so tasty without the need to resort to all sorts of extraneous flavorings.
PS: Like you, I almost always eat Italian at home. But never at a restaurant!
Yum! Thanks for the inspiration and the story.