One of my favorite things to do is collect cookbooks.  I love the photography, I love the chefs, and I love trying new recipes.  But lately life has been busy and my poor cookbooks were beginning to get dusty.  I felt it was high time I make a recipe from one of my beloved books, so I decided to make Bistecca alla Fiorentina from Avec Eric.

Avec Eric is French chef Eric’ Ripert’s cookbook based off his PBS show of the same name.  The book follows Ripert’s many culinary adventures and has recipes that are made with fresh, local and seasonal ingredients which I love.  Plus, he signed my book so obviously we are best friends.

Of course, some of his recipes require more exotic ingredients from his travels such as conch and octopus, but when I saw the recipe for Bistecca alla Fiorentina, I knew it would be perfect to make.  I also paired the steak with some roasted potatoes and mushrooms that were also recipes from the book.  His original recipe called for Porterhouse Steak, but since it was just me and the Englishman, we decided to get smaller cuts of meat and got NY Strip Steak instead which was the perfect amount for the both of us.

I loved making this dish – it was delicious and satisfying, and just as good as anything you would find in a nice restaurant.  Plus, it inspired me to get out of my cooking rut and start trying new recipes!

Bistecca alla Fiorentina (from Avec Eric)

Ingredients:

2 NY Strip Steaks (about 1.5 lbs total)

2 Tablespoons Olive Oil

2 Garlic Cloves, Minced

1 Tablespoons Cracked Black Pepper

6 Lemon Peel Strips (from 1 lemon)

2 Tablespoons Unsalted Butter

Directions:

Preheat your oven to 350F.

Drizzle your olive oil on both sides of the steaks and rub each steak with garlic and season with cracked pepper.  Cover and refrigerate.

*Note: The original recipe recommends grilling the steaks.  Since we don’t have a grill, below is the method we used.

Place your steaks in a fry pan or cast iron skillet and cook each side for 5 minutes (20 minutes total for all 4 sides).

Put the fry pan in the oven to let the steaks finish cooking.  Depending on how well done you like your steak, I would leave in the oven for roughly 10 minutes for medium well.

Remove steaks from oven and place a tablespoon of butter on top of each steak.  Let the steaks rest for five minutes, then enjoy!

We had our steaks with a wonderful Pinot Noir from Gresser Vineyard in Oregon along with some grilled mushrooms with garlic-rosemary oil and rosemary potatoes (both also from the Avec Eric cookbook).

This was a wonderful meal that required minimal ingredients and was easy to make.  I’ll definitely be referencing Avec Eric for more recipes in the future!

What’s your favorite cookbook?  Any new ones I need to get?