Florentine Steak

After eleven years living in the region, I can honestly say without any doubt, that Tuscany features some of the most amazing dishes in all of Italy. In this hub, I’m going to start this mini-hub series taking each of Tuscany’s finest dishes and presenting them to you!

The Florentine Steak – Bistecca alla Fiorentina
Florentine’s like their meat, and so they should, they have the Chianina cow, a truly remarkable animal that munches on the hills around Florence, it’s a monster large and brown, and is the provider of the most amazing steaks that have ever been devised. The only other place where I’ve heard of a steak that can match it, is Kansas in the US (but I have my doubts). The Florentine steak should be served almost raw, and is cooked for 4-5 minutes each side. The steak is usually a thick cut of 8-10 centimeters, and you’ll soon realize that a steak that big will never cook through in such a short time. So, you end up eating much of it almost raw, or tepid. But that’s okay because the Chianina cow’s meat is super tender. The Florentine steak is usually quoted on the menu as a price per kilogram, and you can expect to pay anywhere from 30 – 60 Euros (50 – 80 USD) a kilo. Typically when you go to a restaurant they will bring the steak out to you to view and for you to confirm your acceptance. Ask how much the steak weighs, and do inspect it. You want to make sure that the steak has a good size fillet and that the meat appears fresh and relatively moist, but not wet. It’s really important to do this check because if the steak is wet, it’s a sign it might have been defrosted, and worse, when that gets cooked, it will just pull itself and the meat will be hard. Equally important is what the meat is going to be cooked on. Of course steaks must be cooked “alla brace” which means that it is cooked using either the embers from a wood fire, or on a superbly hot plate. Frankly the only way to eat this steak is on some kind of barbeque with lots and lots of heat, so the steak literally gets cooked properly. However, you’ll find that there are suitable alternatives which will still result in a superb taste.

The after-effects of the Florentine steak
The sheer amount of red meat consumed during a sitting is pretty momentous. What I’ve found is that you reach a tipping point where your body actually slows down, due to the sheer intake of meat! Nice. For anyone that has wondered why the Sangiovese wine in Tuscany is so popular and found it to be quite sharp and alive, eating a Florentine steak will help you understand why it is so popular. It is the wine that you drink with the steak that keeps your head above the table. It’s the wine that dissolves the fat and makes the whole experience of eating a steak bearable and enjoyable.

So that’s it for this hub, an exploration into Tuscan food and I’ve started with a dish so fervently close to a Florentine’s heart that I hope I have given it the write-up it deserves. If you’re itching to visit Florence, don’t think about it, just do it. With cheap flights from Europe to Pisa, you could be overdosing on a Florentine steak and a glass of Sangiovese sooner that you think, and then be relaxing in a Tuscany villa with a pool, just thinking about how good life can be!