The steak and the sauce never cook at the same time – that's the whole technique. Sear the beef fast, build the cream sauce on its drippings, and reunite them at the end so the meat stays tender and the sauce tastes like the steakhouse charged you for it.
Ingredients
- 250 g fettuccine or tagliatelle
- 300 g sirloin or ribeye, in bite-size pieces
- 150 g cherry tomatoes, halved
- 100 g mushrooms, sliced
- 2 big handfuls of baby spinach
- 200 ml cream
- 40 g parmesan, grated
- 3 garlic cloves, minced
- 1 tbsp butter + 1 tbsp olive oil, salt, lots of black pepper
Method
- Boil the pasta in salted water until just shy of al dente; keep a mug of pasta water.
- Season the steak hard. Sear in oil over the highest heat, 60–90 seconds per side, in one layer. Remove while the centers are still pink.
- In the same pan: butter, mushrooms, and tomatoes, 3 minutes. Add garlic for 30 seconds.
- Pour in the cream, scrape up the browned bits, and simmer 2 minutes. Melt in the parmesan.
- Toss in the pasta with a splash of pasta water until the sauce coats. Fold in the spinach until it just wilts.
- Return the steak and its juices for a final 30 seconds. Black pepper like you mean it.