Continue to simmer for about 10 minutes, until the sauce has reduced nicely and the meat is fully cooked through. You want its aroma to complement but not to overwhelm the taste of the meat.Īfter the pizzaiola sauce has simmered for a minute or two, add back your beef slices and any juices they may have exuded. Even if it gives the dish its characteristic ‘pizza’ flavor, a little dried oregano goes a long way. Now, a word of advice: don’t go wild with the oregano. (In the summer, if you have really good ripe fresh tomatoes, just chop them up roughly and use them instead.) Lower the heat, season with salt, pepper and a nice sprinkling of dried oregano. Remove the slices as they brown.Īdd an ample amount of best-quality canned tomatoes, which you can simply crush with your hands, to the oil. Don’t crowd the slices which would impede proper browning. Then add the beef slices and sear them quickly on each side. Turn the heat to high and, when the oil is very hot, quickly brown the garlic, taking care that it does not burn. Pat each slice dry to ensure good browning.Īdd enough olive oil to nicely coat the bottom of a heavy skillet. In either case, pound your slices with a meat pounder or the back of a heavy skillet. If they are any thicken than say, 2 cm (1/2 inch) then you should cut them into half thicknesses. If you can’t find anything like that, you can use boneless steaks. In Italy, they sell thinnish (but not paper thin) slices of beef called fettine di manzo or just fettine. If you are using tender, lean beef, then you want to opt for the quick version of la pizzaiola. 1-2 cloves of garlic, peeled and slightly crushed.There are two ways of making this dish, quick or slow, depending on the kind of meat you are using. The dish goes by various names- manzo alla pizzaiola, fettine alla pizzaiola, bistecca alla pizzaiola-but, more often than not, simply ‘ la pizzaiola’. That’s because of the tomato and oregano, a combination not as ubiquitous as non-Italians often imagine commonly associated with pizza. The name of the dish, carne alla pizzaiola, translates loosely as ‘pizza-style meat’. A bit like slapping a piece of meat on the grill, only tastier. This simple dish is a great solution for times when you want solid sustenance but don’t want to cook anything elaborate. La pizzaiola is one of the pillars of everyday Neapolitan cuisine.

Italian steak pizzaiola