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!