Puglian-Style Beef Casserole
Last week turned out be a bit of a washout. Not in terms of the weather but in terms of my health. Monday evening saw me feeling the chills in 24oC heat so I knew I was brewing something. By Tuesday morning I had a temperature of 39oC, high blood pressure and was quickly dehydrating! Following the doctor’s advice and 4 bottles of Lucozade sport later along with Panadol and Neurofen, I was beginning to feel a bit better by Wednesday. I can safely say I’ve never suffered from a virus before, none like this one anyway!
There’s one thing that I do know about a virus and it’s that if you don’t rest, it will consume you and be with you for a lot longer. Not wanting to disagree with myself, I duly sat {lay} down and watched a lot of TV. Lots of black and white movies – “I was a Male War Bride”, “Great Expectations”, you get the gist. By the end of the week, I was onto cookery DVDs and had to watch my favourite, “Rick Stein’s Mediterranean Escapes.”
Now, this was very timely I can tell you. I had ordered my weekly shop to be delivered which included Cowboy Steaks {ribeye to you and me, on the bone and massive!}. Rick was in Puglia and enjoying an Easter lamb dish. I liked the look of it as it’s a one pot dish and given my current health, a one pot dish was very, very attractive. The steaks were duly assigned to create my version of the dish and here is it:
Serves 2
Ingredients:
- Olive oil
- 5 medium potatoes, peeled and sliced into 1cm slices*
- 2 garlic cloves, crushed
- 300g cherry tomatoes
- 30g Parmesan cheese, finely grated
- 200g grated cheddar cheese
- A decent bunch of fresh parsley, finely chopped or 1 tsp of dried
- Salt and pepper
Method
- Mix the cheeses together
- Add some oil to the bottom of a heavy casserole
- Spread a layer of the potato slices on the bottom of the casserole using about half of the potatoes or less
- Top with some cherry tomatoes
- Sprinkle over some parsley, a crushed garlic clove, a helping of cheese and salt and pepper
- Drizzle over some olive oil
- Place the steaks on top
- Drizzle with more olive oil and season with salt and pepper
- Top with more tomatoes, parsley, garlic, cheese, salt and pepper
- Finish with the remaining potatoes then top with more cheese, salt and pepper and a drizzle of olive oil
- Bake covered in the oven for 1 hour then remove the cover and continue baking until the top is golden {about another 30 minutes but do keep a close eye}.
- Serve with a simple green vegetable such as spinach {I served the spinach raw}
This dish proved a huge hit with Hubbie. Ok, the steaks were well done but very, very tender – just how we like them in our house. The flavour of the garlic and parsley comes through and overall the dish is rich but not oppressively so {yes, you’ve still got some room for dessert!}. I urge you to give it a try and let me know how you find it.
Enjoy!
Xx P
*5 potatoes are really too much for two people but you will find that the bottom layer will invariably stick to the bottom of the casserole no matter what and while these scraped potatoes are still delicious, you will need all five spuds to make up enough for both of you.
Rick Stein’s Mediterranean Escapes is available from Amazon and all good bookshops.
One comment on “Puglian-Style Beef Casserole”
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Salt, Pepper and a Dollop of Cream 
I really l like the look of this, will give it a try (your steaks look fabulous and enormous!).