This creamy pepper pasta with steak strips is the ultimate comfort food recipe. Tender strips of beef cooked together with mushroom, red onion, cream and peppercorns to make a delicious sauce. It is so easy to make and comes together in under 20 minutes. You can use a cheaper cut of beef, such as flank or skirt steak, making it the perfect cost effective mid week meal. Plus it is so simple to adapt if you want to swap out the mushrooms and add in some bell peppers or broccoli.
Place a heavy based skillet over a high heat and leave it to get hot.
Season the steak with salt and rub with 1 tablespoon of the olive oil.
Add the steak to the hot skillet and sear for 2 minutes on one side before turning and searing for 2 minutes on the other side.
Remove the steak from the pan and set aside tented with foil.
Chop the red onion into a small dice and add it to the skillet along with the remaining oil. Cook over a low heat whilst move to the pasta.
Bring a large pan of water to the boil, then salt generously and add the pasta. Cook until al-dente (usually a minute less than the packet suggests) Set a timer and whilst the pasta is cooking finish the sauce.
Increase the heat under your onion skillet, add the butter and sliced mushrooms. Cook until the mushrooms have turned golden.
Add the white wine, stirring well and scrape any bits from the bottom of the pan into the wine.
Once the wine has reduced by half add the beef broth, cracked black pepper, green peppercorns, crushed garlic clove, mustard and heavy cream . Bring to a simmer then reduce the heat to low.
Reserve a cup of the pasta cooking water and then drain the pasta.
Add the pasta to the sauce along with ¼ cup of the cooking water, place back on a medium/low heat and stir to combine.
Thinly slice the steak across the grain and then add it to the skillet along with any meat juices that have collected on the plate.
If needed add a little more pasta cooking water to thin your sauce, stir well and serve immediately with a parsley garnish.