Steak tartare

The steak tartare is a very old dish supposedly created by the Asian Tartar people, a nomadic tribe who used to eat raw meat that they kept under the saddles of their horses in order to make it suitably soft. Today steak tartare, which nowadays is found all across Europe, is consumed carefully chopped and seasoned in various ways. You should never leave out a dash of alcohol or lemon juice, an egg yolk and various spices to flavour it. The only trick is that you must obviously take great care to use only completely fresh meat, which should display the classic colour of vibrant ground beef, because it is upon this that the success of the recipe depends and, above all, the avoidance of any problem with contamination. Are you ready to serve some excellent steak tartare, perhaps under a beautiful flowery gazebo, accompanied by a fine wine like a Dolcetto?

Prepare the beef tenderloin, removing the fat and gristle, and cut into cubes. Mince the fillet, passing it through the mill 3 times in order to break down the fibres thoroughly. Finely chop the parsley to mix with the meat. Take 3 anchovies in oil (preferably homemade), chop finely and add to the mixture. Grate the onion with a grater and then chop it some more with a knife, then add to mixture. Add an egg yolk to the mixture – make sure that it is cold! Peel the gherkin, then grate it and chop it some more with a knife. Add all the ingredients to the ground beef and mix everything well. Add a teaspoon of spicy mustard to the mix, and a good fresh grinding of pepper to make a spicy tartare. Add plenty of extra virgin olive oil to the mixture. Salt the tartare to taste. Squeeze the juice from half a lemon and add cautiously to the tartare; be careful not to overdo it. Chop a handful of capers in vinegar and add to mixture. Shape the portions of tartare with oiled hands; make them into little patties. Make some incisions in the tartare with a knife for decoration, imitating either a grill or shell. Here is the finished steak tartare to be served with hot croutons and butter.