Valentine's Day
Buttery Romanesco Steaks and Puree with Caper-Parsley Salsa Verde
- Prep time 10 minutes
- Cook time 45 minutes
- Serves 2
Author Notes
This recipe was born from a very basic concept of cauliflower steaks, but green along with my favourite bright green italian style salsa verde. The salsa is adapted from Molly Wizenberg's salsa verde, available at: http://orangette.net/2009/07/the-whole-point/. You can experiment with any nuts you like (I used a mix of almonds and peanuts) and switch out the parsley for another herb - it's very forgiving and will be tasty regardless. You can also leave out the anchovies in the salsa to keep it totally vegetarian and swap the butter for a flavourful oil or vegan butter to make it vegan! This salsa will keep for at least a week in the fridge if covered by olive oil and is excellent on just about anything.
—Hannah Mark
What You'll Need
Ingredients
- Salsa Verde
-
4 tablespoons
Finely minced parsley (about half a bunch)
-
3-4 tablespoons
Capers, drained and chopped medium-fine
-
Zest and juice of one lemon
-
10g
Nuts
-
3-4
Anchovies
-
1/4 cup
Olive oil or garlic-infused olive oil
-
1/2 teaspoon
salt, or to taste
- Romanesco steaks and puree
-
1
Large romanesco (about 600g)
-
100g
Potato, diced
-
15g
Tahini
-
Juice of 1-2 limes
-
1 tablespoon
Olive oil
-
1 tablespoon
Butter
-
2
slices of lime
-
Salt and pepper to taste
Directions
- Salsa Verde
- For the salsa, toast the nuts in a small pan over medium heat until toasty brown and fragrant. Remove from heat and allow to cool, then chop.
- Combine parsley, capers, anchovies, lemon zest and juice, chopped nuts and olive oil in a small jar. Add salt and mix thoroughly. Adjust salt and lemon to taste. Set aside
- Romanesco steaks and puree
- Preheat the oven to 200 degrees C. For the romanesco, slice clean in half along the stem into two equally sized lobes and trim each lobe into a steak about 2-4cm thick. The trimmings should amount to about 400g.
- Bring a large amount of salted water to the boil on the stove and add the potato. Boil for 4 minutes, then add the romanesco florets trimmed off the two steaks and boil for a further 10 minutes or so, until everything is very tender, then drain and let cool slightly, reserving a little of the water.
- Meanwhile, place the steaks on a baking sheet and drizzle with the olive oil, rubbing all over to ensure even coverage. Season with salt and pepper and roast in the oven for about 15-20 minutes, until mostly cooked.
- Once the potato and romanesco florets are slightly cooled, add the a blender along with the lime juice and tahini, and season with a little salt. Blend until completely smooth, adding the reserved water if necessary to achieve the right consistency. It should look like pale green hummus.
- Remove steaks from the oven. Melt the butter in a large pan over medium heat and throw in the lime slices. Add the romanesco steaks, turning to coat both sides in the butter, and continue to brown until beautiful and crusty.
- Scoop half of the puree onto each plate, then smooth out into a base on which to place the steaks. Place these on top and drizzle with the salsa - a tablespoon or two is perfect for me, but you can add more as you like!
See what other Food52ers are saying.