Beef Deserves Drama of Flambe When It’s Rarely Done

If you’re like most health-conscious Americans, you’ve probably dramatically slashed the amount of red meat in your family’s diet.

So, when beef does make one of its rare appearances on your plate, Roberto Saracino suggests you make it something special--flames and all.

And Saracino, executive chef at Trattoria Spiga in South Coast Plaza’s Crystal Court mall in Costa Mesa, has just the dish for the occasion: Filetto Alla Spighetta, medium-size medallions of beef gently sauteed with cloves and rosemary and served with a light sauce of cream, Dijon mustard and flambeed cognac.

The dish is not on Spiga’s menu. It’s one he concocted when he was chef at L’Opera, its sister restaurant in Long Beach, and which he serves to guests at his home in Irvine.

Saracino, who recently returned from a six-month sabbatical in his native Italy, is a graduate of the prestigious Istituto Professionale Alberghiero in Torino and worked in a number of restaurants abroad and on the high seas (he was a chef for several Princess Line ships) before moving to the United States.

For the filetto, he suggests you have the butcher cut the meat in one-inch slices and that you press each one flat with the palm of your hand before cooking.

FILETTO ALLA SPIGHETTA

8-ounce beef tenderloin

1 clove garlic, crushed

2 twigs fresh rosemary

3 teaspoons olive oil

2 ounces butter

2 ounces cream

1 ounce cognac

1 1/2 ounces button mushrooms, sliced

1 ounce Dijon mustard

Salt and pepper to taste

Heat oil and butter in a medium saucepan. Add garlic and rosemary and saute until garlic is tender. Add steak and saute as desired. Remove steak. Drain fat from pan. Add mushrooms and cook until they are tender. Return steak to pan, flambe with cognac. Add cream and reduce mixture slightly. Remove steak and keep warm. Remove pan from flame and whisk in mustard. Pour sauce in center of plate and place steak atop it. Garnish with another twig of fresh rosemary. (Serves one.)