Thursday, March 15, 2012

Beef with Olives and Tomatoes; Fresh Almond, Green Bean and Peach Salad



Despite my best intentions, I can't give up my cookbook addiction, especially when there are bargains to be had!  I recently acquired Angela Hartnett's Cucina on sale, and am glad I did - it is a gorgeous book with practical recipes, with an Italian slant.  The salads in the book are particularly gorgeous - and this from me, a former salad hater and now just a salad "meh" girl!

For a weekend meal, I made Angela's  Rib Eye with Tomatoes and Olives, featured in the photo at the top of this post.  It was a simple but delicious way to cook steak - I just used porterhouse steak.  You have to like olives though for this to work, as the olives are a dominant flavour in this dish. 

To accompany the steak, I made Angela's fresh almond, green bean and peach salad, on p170 of Cucina:



Doesn't this look scrumptious, and so summery? It is so simple to make - just boil up 150g of trimmed green beans, drain and cool them, and cut them into pieces ~ 1 inch long (or save yourself some hassle and cut them before boiling them).  Put the beans into a large bowl.  Cut 4 peaches into 4-6 wedges (I used 2 large peaches, which was plenty), and add the peach wedges to the beans with 75g blanched almonds.  Chop up 6 basil leaves and 6 mint leaves and add to the salad just before serving.  Toss the salad with a vinaigrette made from 20ml cider vinegar and 100ml olive oil.  I had this salad for a couple of days, and it stayed delicious for the entire time.

Enjoy!

7 comments:

  1. Looks great and if a non salad lover liked this recipe I think I would love it!

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  2. Wow. Your entire dish looks amazing. I love how you included sweet and savory flavors. Great post!

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  3. I love salad, and that does look delicious and summery!

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  4. I've always wanted to visit one of her restaurants! The dish looks like it has a bit of everything! :D

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  5. Looks yummy and healthy :) I have a serious cookbook addiction too ~ it's worse when you read another language lol you'd wanna get cookbooks in that language too~ I've bought so many sighhh not good :D

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  6. I hear you on the cookbook addiction...loud and clear! This meal looks delicious. So pretty in colors, too. I have never had, or even thought of or seen, green beans with peaches like this...I am wishing I could try that so I will mark this one for when these are in season here...it will be fun to try a completely new thing. You and I are so different on the salad deal...I could live on salad and soup totally. Salad and I are BFF (Best Friends Forever). ;-)

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Thanks for dropping by!