Put the meat in the freezer for 20 to 30 minutes before you work with it: once firmed up, it slices much more thinly. If your butcher has already cut it for carpaccio, skip this step and keep it in the fridge, lying flat between two sheets of paper.
Recipes Starter · Aphrodisiac recipe
Beef carpaccio with artichoke hearts.
Wafer-thin slices of rump steak that melt on the tongue, lemon to wake everything up, and two artichoke hearts in vinaigrette set down like a promise. A starter to be eaten slowly, with your fork and with your eyes.
Beef carpaccio and artichoke hearts plated for an intimate dinner for two. AI-generated illustrations.
See in Photo Comic artCarpaccio gets the evening going instead of weighing it down: raw, fresh and light, it's eaten in little mouthfuls, effortlessly, with no heaviness at all. And since it's almost entirely made ahead, you stay at the table rather than standing over the hob.
Raw red meat has always had a slightly wild reputation, the kind that gives you energy and fire. The artichoke, for its part, has trailed a whiff of scandal for centuries: it was said to be so stirring that it was kept well away from respectable tables. Add rosemary, warm and resinous, lemon that tingles and wakes things up, a twist of pepper, and you get a dish that plays on sensation rather than showmanship.
Serve it as a starter, with good bread and a well-chilled glass. The idea isn't to fill up but to sharpen the appetite, to take your time, to pick up a piece of artichoke heart dripping with vinaigrette and eat it with your fingers. The rest of dinner, and of the evening, will see to everything else.
The idea isn't to fill up but to sharpen the appetite.
Method.
9 steps · 90 minutesBring a pan of salted water to the boil and drop in the artichoke hearts, still frozen. Allow about 15 minutes at a gentle boil: the tip of a knife should slide in without resistance, but the heart shouldn't fall apart. Drain them and leave to cool slightly on kitchen paper.
Meanwhile, slice the meat as thinly as you can with a very sharp knife, cutting across the grain. If the slices still look too thick, flatten them gently between two sheets of cling film with the flat of a knife or a rolling pin.
Lay the slices in a single layer in a shallow dish. Drizzle with the juice of one lemon and 2 tablespoons of olive oil, season generously with pepper and sprinkle with the ground rosemary. Turn them once so every slice gets its share.
Cover the dish with cling film and leave to marinate in the fridge for 30 minutes, no longer. The meat will change colour slightly on the surface and become more tender, but beyond that the acid ends up properly cooking it and it loses its melting texture.
Make the vinaigrette: in a bowl, mix the mustard with the tablespoon of lemon juice, season with salt and pepper, then pour in the olive oil in a thin stream, whisking with a fork until the mixture thickens and comes together.
Put two flat plates in the fridge for ten minutes or so: served on a cold plate, carpaccio stays fresh for much longer.
Drain the slices of meat and arrange them in a rosette on the cold plates, barely overlapping. Strain the marinade through a small sieve and drizzle it over the meat, then season with fleur de sel, only at the very last moment.
Set an artichoke heart in the centre of each plate, spoon over the mustard vinaigrette and sprinkle everything with chopped parsley. Serve straight away, with toasted country bread that's still warm.
Tips.
The Points G editors
Recipes proofread before publication. The virtues credited to foods owe more to tradition than to science: the pleasure of cooking for two is real enough. AI-generated illustrations.
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