Gino's spicy warm beef salad with ricotta cheese

Wednesday 6 May at 3:07pm

We’re in Sardinia for another trip to Casa D’Acampo. Gino pays his good friend Allessandro a visit to help make ricotta cheese before cooking up insalata di carne - a delicious spicy warm beef salad.

Insalata di carne / Spicy warm beef salad

Serves: 4

Ingredients

800g fillet of beef

2 medium size red chilies, cut in half lengthways and seeds discarded

280g chargrilled artichokes in oil, drained

7 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil

60g hazelnuts, roughly chopped

4 tablespoons balsamic glaze

40ml dry white wine

60g rocket leaves

250g ricotta

Fine salt and freshly ground black pepper

Warm crusty bread, to serve

Method

Take the meat out of the fridge 20 minutes before cooking. Finely slice the chilies and cut the artichokes in quarters, set aside.
Place a large frying pan over a high heat for 2 minutes. Meanwhile, place the beef onto a large flat plate and drizzle over 2 tbsp of the oil. Sprinkle over 1 tsp of salt and 1 tsp of pepper and roll the meat around the plate to ensure that all sides are coated with salt, pepper and oil.
Transfer the beef into the hot frying pan and fry for 10 minutes, making sure that it’s coloured on all sides. Use a large pair of cooking tongs to move the meat around. Remove the meat from the pan and leave to rest onto a plate for about 3 minutes, cover with foil to keep warm.
Meanwhile, add the artichokes, hazelnuts and chillies into the frying pan, pour over the balsamic glaze with the wine and stir with a wooden spoon for 30 seconds, set aside
Place the beef onto a chopping board and with the help of a really sharp knife, slice the beef into 5mm thin slices. Arrange the slices, slightly overlapping, onto four flat serving plates.
Scatter over the warm artichokes with chilies and the hazelnuts and any remaining juices from the frying pan. Spoon the ricotta on top.
Arrange the rocket leaves on top of the slices of beef and drizzle over the remaining extra virgin olive oil. Sprinkle a little salt on top of the rocket leaves. Serve with warm crusty bread.

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