Recipe: Angel Hair Pasta with Steak, Basil, and Almonds

My cousin, Jess, got me a Barnes & Noble gift card for my birthday and gave me the great idea to get a new cookbook with it, and that's just what I did. As many of you could probably guess, I got a recently published Giada De Laurentiis cookbook, Giada at Home (I promise I looked at cookbooks by other chefs, but there were just too many good recipes in this one that I couldn't pass up). I've already marked a handful of recipes I want to try, and tonight was my first try at one of them, a pasta dish with a fresh salsa-style sauce, crunchy almonds, and perfectly-seasoned steak. Just a word of caution...be sure you get beef tenderloin steaks and not some other cut. I accidentally picked up the wrong cut, seeing "tenderloin" written on the package, but not noticing the "chuck" also written on it, a.k.a. I got a much less tender and much cheaper piece of meat that was not nearly as tender as the real deal would have been. The dish was still good, but to get it right, you really need the proper beef tenderloin steaks.

Serves: 4-6
Prep. time: 10 minutes
Cooking time: 20 minutes
Difficulty: Easy
Special equipment: Food processor

Ingredients

• 1 lb. beef tender loin steaks
• Salt and pepper, for seasoning
• 2 tsp. herbes de Provence
• 1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil, plus more for drizzling on the steaks
• 8-16 oz. angel hair, spaghetti, or other long, thin pasta
• 1, 14.5 oz. can diced tomatoes and their juice
• Approx. 2 cups (I used two, 2 oz. packs of prepackaged) basil
• 1 garlic clove, chopped
• 1 tsp. lemon zest
• 2 tsp. fresh lemon juice
• 3/4 cup smoked almonds (if you're like me and you can't find smoked almonds in your local grocery store, buy regular sliced or slivered almonds and toast them in the oven for just a few minutes at 350*F)
• Italian cheese, like Parmiggiano-Reggiano or Pecorino-Romano, to taste

Directions
Move an oven rack in the upper third of the oven and preheat the oven to 450*F. Place the steaks on a rimmed baking sheet and season both sides with salt, pepper, and herbes de Provence, then drizzle with olive oil. Roast for 10-12 minutes to get steaks to medium doneness (less time for medium rare, more for medium well). Remove the steaks from the oven and let them rest on a cutting board for 10 minutes. In the meantime, bring a medium to large pot of salted water to a boil. Add the pasta to the water and cook according to package instructions (about 4-5 minutes). Drain and return to pot, drizzle with a little olive oil to keep it from sticking, then place the lid on the pot to keep the pasta warm. In a food processor, combine the dice tomatoes and their juice, garlic, lemon zest and juice, basil, and 1/4 cup olive oil. Blend until coarsely chopped. Pour the sauce over the warm pasta and toss to combine. Add the almonds (be sure they are either sliced, slivered, or crunched up into pieces) and toss to combine. Either serve the steaks whole, alongside the pasta, or slice the steaks into 1/4-inch pieces and toss with the pasta, then serve. Serve topped with Italian cheese if desired.

This dish is the sort of dish that can easily transition from a summer meal to a winter meal. The fresh, uncooked sauce (warmed through by the hot pasta), packed with crisp basil and bright tomatoes, adds a summery feel to the dish, but the smoked or toasted almonds add a warmth and nuttiness that makes it perfect for colder weather. The steak is the perfect compliment to this pasta, but chicken breasts, seasoned the same way, would work just as well in the dish.

Recipe: Penne with Beef and Arugula

"Mom! What are we having for dinner?"
"Chicken."
"Awwwww! Again?"
"Yes."

My mom's use of chicken in just about every dinner dish we had when I was a kid was an ongoing joke. Other than spaghetti and meatballs, a totally 90s "taco pie," and this awful beef and rice stuffed cabbage that she made, my mom's dishes typically involved chicken. Now, don't get me wrong, I love chicken (and my mom's meals). You can do just about anything with chicken—you can flavor it with an endless number of sauces and rubs, pair it with any side dish, and cook it in countless different ways—but it does get boring after a while. So tonight, I decided not to cook with chicken and pick another protein. I leafed through the pages of my Giada De Laurentiis Everyday Pasta cookbook and found a pasta dish that called for New York strip steaks, and that was just the kind of meal I was looking for.

Serves: 6-8
Prep. time: 10-15 minutes
Cooking time: 20-30 minutes
Difficulty: Easy

Ingredients

• 2 New York strip steaks, about 8 oz. each
• Salt and pepper, to taste
• 1 tsp. herbes de Provence
• 1 garlic clove, minced
• 3/4 cup extra virgin olive oil (plus a few tablespoons to cook the steak in)
• 1 lb. penne pasta
• 1/4 cup balsamic vinegar
• 2 tbsp. Dijon mustard (or spicy brown mustard)
• 1/4 cup chopped fresh basil
• 1/4 cup chopped fresh flat-leaf parsley
• 2 cups chopped arugula 

Directions
Season  both sides of the steaks with salt and pepper, minced garlic, and herbes de Provence. Heat about 3 tbsp. olive oil in a large skillet over medium heat (try to avoid non-stick skillets as they tend to not brown meat as well as regular skillets). Cook the steaks for 5-7 minutes per side (this will get you a nice medium pink inside). Remove the meat from the skillet and let it rest on a cutting board while you cook the pasta.
In the meantime, bring a pot of salted water to a boil, then add the pasta and cook until al dente, stirring occasionally (8-10 minutes). Drain the pasta, reserving 1/4 cup of the cooking liquid.
In a small bowl, whisk together the mustard, balsamic vinegar, 3/4 cup olive oil, basil, parsley, and about 1/2 tsp. each salt and pepper to make a sauce.
Toss the sauce and chopped arugula with the penne, and add the reserved cooking liquid. Slice the steaks thin and add the slices to the pasta, and toss to mix completely.

The sauce has a lot of kick to it and pairs perfectly with the steak (it would be great just drizzled on a salad too). The fresh herbs and arugula add a lightness to the dish and great color too, and I love the flavor of the herbes de Provence on the steak (that seasoning is phenomenal—it has lemon peel, lavender, thyme, basil, fennel, savory, and more). It's a delicious change from a chicken dish and it's the sort of dish that would work great as a meal hot from the stove or as a dish for a picnic.