Carne Cruda is a delicious and decadent restaurant quality Italian beef appetizer. Like Steak Tartare this dish revolves around raw beef. Here the finely chopped beef is lightly 'cooked' with lemon juice. Then it is dressed with herbs and extra virgin olive oil and served with crisp ciabatta slices. It makes a small amount of expensive beef go a long way and can be served as part of a charcuterie board or as an appetizer.
Prep Time10 minutesmins
Total Time10 minutesmins
Course: Appetizer
Cuisine: Italian
Servings: 4people as an appetizer or 6-8 if served as part of an antipasto platter
As soon as you get the meat home, remove it from the plastic/paper, trim it of any fat/sinew and then place in the freezer for 30-45 minutes.9 oz/ 250g beef tenderloin
Remove the beef from the freezer and chop into long slices against the grain, cut these strips into long thin strips. Rotate the strips and cut into small cubes. Place the meat in a non-metalic bowl, cover and leave in the coldest part of the fridge until you are ready to serve.
Squeeze the juice of the lemons into a jug and add in the olive oil.½/ 0.5 lemon1 tbsp olive oil
Finely chop and squash the anchovy fillet against the chopping board until you have rough anchovy paste.2 anchovy fillets
Mix this into the lemon oil mixture.
Season generously with salt and pepper and mix well. salt freshly cracked black pepper
When you are ready to serve, pour the lemon mixture over the meat and leave it to sit for 5 minutes.
Whilst the meat is marinating, thinly slice the ciabatta and crisp lightly under a hot grill.1 ciabatta loaf
Just before you serve it, stir the parsley through the beef.1 tbsp chopped flat leaf parsley
Serve the beef with the crisp toasts.
Notes
You can use a lean cut of round steak as an inexpensive alternative. Just cut the steak slightly finer.