Italian Easy
20130531-italian-easy-carpaccio.jpg

[Photograph: Deborah Mele]

Note: For this dish it is best to use baby or wild arugula, but if this is not available, you can use a mixed baby salad greens. You can either drizzle your carpaccio dish with a lightly flavored mustard sauce as I have in my recipe, or choose to use a simple lemon vinaigrette. To create your vinaigrette, top your carpaccio with a squeeze of lemon, a drizzle of olive oil, and a sprinkle of salt and pepper and you are done.

About the Author: Deborah Mele is the owner of Italian Food Forever, an Italian recipe blog, as well as Recipe Rebuild, a healthy recipe blog she shares with her daughter Christy, an RD. Deborah lives 6 months a year in Umbria, Italy where she oversees her guest house Il Casale di Mele.

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About This Recipe

Ingredients

  • 1 pound beef tenderloin
  • 1 (5 ounce box) fresh baby arugula, washed and dried (see note above)
  • 1/2 cup extra virgin olive oil, divided
  • Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper
  • 3 tablespoons freshly squeezed juice from about 2 lemons
  • 1 teaspoon Dijon mustard
  • 1 egg yolk
  • 10 small tomatoes cut into quarters to garnish

Procedures

  1. Wrap the beef tenderloin in plastic wrap, and chill in the freezer for 1 hour. Using a very sharp knife, cut the beef across the grain into 1/8-inch-thick slices. Place the slices between sheets of plastic wrap or wax paper and gently pound with the flat end of a meat mallet, or roll with a heavy rolling pin until paper thin.

  2. Arrange the slices on 6 individual chilled plates. Add the arugula to a bowl and toss with 4 tablespoons of olive oil and season with salt and pepper. Arrange the arugula in a pile in the center of each plate.

  3. Place the remaining 4 tablespoons oil, lemon juice, mustard, egg yolk, salt and pepper in a 2-cup measure. Use an immersion blender or hand blender to mix until thick. Drizzle the mustard sauce around each plate avoiding the arugula. Garnish the plates with the tomato quarters and serve immediately.