Rare Fillet of Beef with Salsa Verde & Truffled New Potatoes | Gordon Ramsay

It's a special-occasion-dinner in the Ramsay household, and even the kids get involved in helping Gordon to prepare the Rolls Royce of beef cuts: the fillet. The salsa verde adds punch, and the truffle adds indulgence. A truly special dinner.

This Valentine’s Day we chose to avoid overpriced set restaurant menus and instead my boyfriend ruffled through our recipe books for something special. With beef fillet as the star ingredient, this is the ultimate man’s meal – probably more suited to a ‘girl-cooks-to-impress-boy’ situation. Luckily, I have quite blokey tastes when it comes to food (I love pies, Stilton and scotch eggs) and besides he wanted to revisit a steak dinner after the disaster of our first Valentine’s Day meal.

This time he did not disappoint. 12oz of pink Welsh beef fillet, tangy salsa verde, baked new potatoes with charred skins topped off with black truffle shavings and lots of Parmesan. Wonderfully pungent flavours that just… go! The recipe is from Gordon Ramsay’s Ultimate Home Cooking and should serve 6-8 people, but never wanting to turn down a challenge we thought we could manage it between the two of us. We didn’t succeed and Lola the bulldog had to help out.

Beef fillet and truffles are pricey ingredients, so this is definitely one for a special occasion.

My eat of the week

Recipe

Beef fillet

– Olive oil

– 1kg piece of fillet beef

– 2 heads of garlic, halved horizontally

– 4 thyme sprigs

– 2 rosemary sprigs

– Butter

– Sea salt & ground black pepper

Salsa verde

– 5 anchovy fillets

– 1 1/2 capers

– 2 peeled and crush garlic cloves

– 1 1/2 tbsp Dijon mustard

– 1 1/2 tbsp red wine vinegar

– Extra virgin olive oil

– Bunch of parsley, leaves only

– Small bunch of mint, leaves only

– Ground black pepper

New potatoes

– 1kg baby new potatoes

– Olive oil

– 30g grated Parmesan cheese

– 10g black truffle shavings

– Sea salt & ground black pepper

How to cook

Preheat the oven to 180C/gas 4.

Toss the potatoes in olive oil and season with salt and pepper before placing in a roasting tin. Roast for 30-35 minutes until the skins are crisp and they are soft all the way through.

While the potatoes are roasting, make a start on the beef. Place an ovenproof frying pan over a medium heat and add a dash of olive oil. Rub the beef all over with salt and pepper to season, then brown in the pan on all sides for a minute or two. Add the garlic halves, thyme, rosemary and roll the beef around with the herbs. Add a couple of knobs of butter and, when melted, baste the beef with the pan’s juices.

Turn up the heat of the oven to 200C/gas 6 and move the cooked potatoes down to the very bottom shelf to keep warm. Transfer the frying pan with the beef to the oven and roast for 10-12 minutes (rare).

Meanwhile, make the salsa verde. Put the anchovies with a teaspoon of their oil, capers, garlic, a pinch of salt and half of the herbs, in a mortar and point with a pestle until it becomes a paste. Add a little extra virgin olive oil to loosen the paste and stir in the rest of the herbs. Season to taste.

Once the beef is cooked, baste it in the pan’s juices and transfer to a warm plate. Spoon over a couple of spoonfuls of salsa verde, cover loosely with tin foil and leave to rest for 10 minutes.

Remove the potatoes from the oven, place in a serving bowl and toss with Parmesan. Sprinkle with truffle shavings.

To serve, slice the beef thickly and spoon the salsa verde alongside. Plate up with a half head of garlic and baby leaf salad.