Some people (unfortunately) know this dish as served at Olive Garden, but its a much nicer dish when done in the classic Italian style, and you don’t even need to go out to dinner to try it. You can have a lot of fun with the dish and it’s a great way to stretch some steak if you’re on a bit of a budget. Or you could just as easily go with chicken, whatever you feel like as long as you can slice it up over top for a beautiful presentation!
You Will Need: Serves 4
- 1 lb linguine pasta
- 2 lb flank, sirloin, shoulder, or other inexpensive steak, marinated in balsamic dressing for at least an our or so
- 1 red onion, julienned
- 1 tomato, chopped into ½ inch pieces
- salt and pepper
- 1 bunch asparagus cut into 2 inch batons
- 1 tbsp olive oil
- 1 tbsp chopped fresh parsley
- crumbled gorgonzola cheese for garnish
For the sauce:
- 1 cup heavy cream
- 2 tbsp butter
- ¼ cup gorgonzola cheese
- 1 tbsp parmesan or romano cheese
- salt and pepper
- 1 tsp granulated garlic
Cook the pasta to directions in salted, boiling water. While the pasta cooks, put a sauce pot on medium high heat and melt the butter. Add the salt, pepper and garlic. Next add the heavy cream and bring to a low simmer. With a whisk, mix in the gorgonzola and parmesan cheese until no chunks remain and the sauce thickens.
Cut the steak into strips and heat the oil in a large skillet on medium high heat. Add the steak, onions and asparagus. Season with salt and pepper and sautee until the meat is nicely colored and the onions are softened, probably about 4-5 minutes. You can add some fresh garlic here too if you like to help season the steak, I know I always do!
Toss it around to ensure everything cooks evenly. You don’t want to overcook your steak, so if you want it more medium rare, you may want to cook the steak separately, then sautee the veggies in the same pan and cut it up for service. Usually though, with large enough strips, you can keep your steak juicy while making preparation simpler.
Either way, when the onions are softened, toss in the chopped tomatoes and parsley and toss to incorporate. You don’t want to cook the tomatoes a lot, just heat them up a bit. After which cut the heat to avoid over cooking the tomatoes and steak. If you want, you could certainly use sun dried tomatoes here, but I prefer fresh for the color and texture.
Drain the pasta and mix in the sauce. Lay out a bed of pasta on 4 plates, then top with the steak and vegetable mixture followed by a sprinkling of crumbled gorgonzola.
