bavette steak with salsa verde

Bavette steak with salsa verde a delicious dish that all the family will enjoy. A great cut of beef that's quick to cook and packed full of flavour.

Bavette steak with salsa verde is a simple steak dish that is packed full of flavour.

We served this bavette steak and salsa verde at our recent Supperclubs and all our guests enjoyed the dish. Many of them had not eaten this cut before but they all agreed that it was full of flavour.

We decided to serve it with an Italian marinade of balsamic vinegar, garlic, oregano and black pepper. Prior to serving to our guests we experimented with 24 and 48 hour marinating times.

After taste testing we both agreed that the 48 hour marinate made a huge difference to the finished dish and was definitely worth the extra time in preparation.

How to cook and slice bavette steak:

Bavette steak is also known as flank or skirt steak. It's a lean cut of steak but one that's full of meaty flavour.

However, key to enjoying this cut of steak is how you cook and cut it! Firstly, bavette should be cooked to either rare (internal temp 45-47C) or medium rare (50-52C).

If you cook this cut any further it will be too chewy and tough to eat. Once cooked, as with all steaks, it's essential that you rest the meat for at least 5 minutes before cutting and serving.

The second rule to cooking and enjoying bavette steak is how you cut it! It is important that when cutting bavette steak that you slice across the grain of the meat as this breaks down the muscle making it tender to eat.

If you cut it any other way you will have a very chewy piece of meat. However, follow these two simple instructions and you'll have a lovely piece of steak.

Alternative methods of cooking the steak:

We have used a barbecue to cook these steaks as we like the smokiness that this method of cooking adds to the dish.

However, if cooking indoors on the stove top simply get the frying pan searingly hot. Once the pan has reached temperature add some oil and fry the steaks in the pan, turning only once during the cook.

Always rest the steak as you normally would before serving.

Preparing the Salsa Verde:

We have not used a food processor to prepare the salsa verde.

Instead we cut the ingredients using a knife. This gives a rougher texture to the salsa, as you don't want too smooth puree-like sauce.

The red wine vinegar can be substituted for some lemon juice if you would prefer, just balance the acid with the other ingredients. Certainly if serving a salsa verde with fish I would always substitute with lemon juice.

Some anchovies can be used alongside the capers to add a salty element to the salsa. Just cut back on the capers and add gradually, you don't want an overly salty salsa verde.

Some other serving suggestions:

We have served bavette steak with salsa verde. However, we also added a smoked pepper puree to the dish for our Supperclub.

This addition elevated the dish to another level adding a complexity of flavours to the plate. We roasted our own peppers and cooked them with thyme leaves (remove any woody stalk), black pepper and a little vegetable stock.  Once soft and cooked through we blitzed together to make a puree.

Just ensure you drain off any excess liquid before blitzing together. You can add more in if the puree is too thick, but it's more difficult to take away.

While we roasted the peppers, you could also use some ready roasted and skinned peppers from a jar. However, ensure you wash them thoroughly to remove any oil or vinegar.

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Other recipes to try:

If you liked this recipe then try our

• Sirloin Steak with Mushroom & Madiera Sauce
• Sirloin Steak with Lemongrass
• Skirt Steak with a Warm Spice Marinade

Our thanks to Donald Russell Butchers, who gifted us the bavette steak for use in this recipe.