Sushi del Chianti ~ serves 4
Dario Ceccini is one of the best butchers in Italy. His little shop is
in the town of Panzano in Chianti and it's usually packed with people
eating and drinking the free food and wine that he gives out,
especially on a Sunday morning at about ten o'clock if you're lucky
you may even get to hear him singing to his customers! From a business
point of view, I've tried to work out how he has the time and the money
to give all this stuff away, but it obviously works because he sells
lots of produce.
When this 'Chianti sushi' came out on a big platter with chopsticks
hanging off the side of it for customers to use, I thought Dario must
be taking the mickey, but essentially it's a Tuscan version of a steak
tartare. It's slightly fresher, really tasty, and the easiest thing in
the world to make. However, I would only suggest having a go at it if
you can get yourself some good¬ quality organic or free range beef
that's been hung for at least sixteen days. Don't use any old rubbish.
As it's locally available to him, Dario was using the local Chianina
white beef which is famous in that part of Tuscany. What was
interesting was that he wasn't using the more predictable sirloin or
rump, but instead was using topside and silverside. These cuts would
classically be used for making bresaola or salt beef, but check out his
special way of making them tender in the method.
500g/1lb 2oz best quality beef topside or silverside
a small handfull of fresh sweet marjoram or
a little less of fresh oregano leaves
sea salt and freshly ground black pepper
juice of 1 lemon
1 small dried chilli, crumbled
extra virgin olive oil
zest of 1 orange
Your beef shouldn't have any sinews on it at all, but if it has
remove them with a knife, then slice and finely chop the meat. Now it's
time to bash it up! If you have one of those hammer-¬type meat
tenderizers, that's the best thing to use, or just get hold of
something small and heavy. Spend a few minutes bashing the beef until
it looks a little bit like mince.
It was at this point that I noticed Dario sprinkled a good pinch of
salt and pepper over the meat with the chilli, half the orange zest and
most of the marjoram. He bashed it for another minute to really get the
flavours in, so do this now! Next he chopped it for another 10 seconds
or so, mixing it all up nicely and pulling it into the middle from the
sides, tasted it for seasoning and transferred it to a platter.
Once you have the meat spread out over your platter, squeeze the lemon
juice over the top and drizzle with extra virgin olive oil. Scatter
with the remaining marjoram leaves and orange zest before serving, and
eat with chopsticks and bruschette.