Steak Pizzaola with The Works

Sometimes, in your quest to eat more healthy, you just have too many nights of lentil soup and too many lunches of chopped Greek salad, and just start asking yourself, where's the beef? How can I derail this healthy eating with one dish? I mean besides the brunch dish from the weekend? And the big Indian night? And? Ok, ok, no one likes a wise guy.

Answer: Steak Pizzaola!

I am not a huge fan of Rachel Ray, but I used to watch her during the dinner hour a number of years ago while I was dating a fellow who always seemed to need to have a TV on. All. The. Time. She did this recipe one night and all the yum glands were flowing.

Steak with a sauce that includes pepperoni, peppers, onion, garlic, tomatoes. Mmmmmmm.

I've done this with andouille instead of pepperoni, and increased the amount of peppers in it. I have sliced the steak after the browning and a proper rest and added the strips at the end instead of laying the steak in whole. It's truly hard to screw this one up.

The recipe makes a lot of sauce. I usually reserve a couple or three cups for pasta.

I served this with some good bread and a spinach, pear, strawberry and feta salad with balsamic dijon caper dressing.

Mangia!

Steak Pizzaola with The Works

Recipe adapted from Rachael Ray

1 16 to 18 oz. piece porterhouse or rib-eye steak

Salt and pepper

3 tbsp. extra-virgin olive oil, 3 turns of the pan

4 cloves garlic, crushed away from the skins

1 tsp crushed red pepper flakes

12 mushrooms, sliced

1 small onion, sliced

1 green bell pepper, seeded and sliced
1 red bell pepper, seeded and sliced

1 stick pepperoni, casing removed, then chopped

1/2 cup dry red wine, eyeball it

1 (28-oz) can crushed tomatoes

1 tsp dried oregano or 2 teaspoons chopped fresh oregano leaves

1/4 cup grated cheese, Parmigiano or Romano

Directions

Heat a large nonstick skillet over high heat. Season the steak with salt and pepper. Add 2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil to the pan. Brown 3 minutes on each side and remove. Add another turn of the pan extra-virgin olive oil and reduce heat to medium high. Add garlic, pepper flakes, mushrooms, onions, peppers and pepperoni, if using. Cook mixture 5 to 8 minutes or until peppers and onions are slightly softened, then add wine and scrape up any good-bits from the bottom of the skillet. Add tomatoes, oregano, salt and pepper, to taste. Simmer for another 5 minutes. Slide steak back in and reduce heat to medium. Cover pan and cook 5 or 6 minutes for medium rare, 10 to 12 minutes for medium well. Remove meat, cut away from bone or divide into 2 large portions. Cover steak with sauce and top with grated cheese.