Rifling through a stash of old magazines, we found a recipe for what sounded like an exceptionally pungent salsa verde recipe using anchovies and mustard on a base of parsley. The best way to use this powerful dressing is of course with a lean steak, so we waited for the prime opportunity to cook and enjoy our meat with this sauce.

The salsa verde really does pack a punch with bold flavours capers, raw garlic, anchovy and mustard so this is not for the mild-palate-ed, but if bold is what you like then you’re in for a treat. The steak is cooked in the Season’s Eatings way, that is to say flash-fried until the meat is sealed and then wrapped in tin foil and finished briefly in a hot oven until you get it as rare or well-done as you choose.

This recipe serves 2 people. We served our steak – each piece being about 4cm thick, with the salsa verde with some tender-stem broccoli, although use any other vegetables you happen to have in.

Preparation time: 10 minutes

Cooking time: 15 minutes

Ingredients:

• 2 fillets of topside steak
• Olive oil
• Sea salt
• Freshly ground black pepper
• 7 tbsp Extra Virgin olive oil
• 25g fresh parsley
• 2 tbsp capers
• ½ clove garlic – chopped
• 4 anchovies
• ½ tsp mustard
• ½ tsp red wine vinegar

Recipe:

• Pre-heat the oven to 190ºC. Then put a pan over a medium-high heat to warm up as you prepare the beef steaks.
• Rub the steaks with olive oil and season on both sides with sea salt and freshly ground black pepper. Always add oil to the steak rather than the pan to stop your kitchen filling with smoke.
• Fry each side of the steak for 1-2 minutes per side until the meat is sealed.
• Remove from the pan, loosely wrap in a tin foil parcel and put in the oven. Cook for 10-12 minutes in the oven for medium, for a piece of steak about 4cm.
• Meanwhile make the salsa verde. Tear off the main bits of stalk from the parsley and put the leafage in a mini blender with the capers, garlic, anchovies, mustard, red wine vinegar and extra virgin olive oil. Blitz until smooth, then decant into a small serving bowl.  
• Take the steak out the oven, leave to rest for a minute before plating. Cut in half, adorn with a splash of salsa verde and serve with the your vegetable(s) of choice.