Air-dried beef with rocket recipe | Bresaola e rucola

Bresaola, when it’s done well, turns a tougher cut like topside into an experience a bit like fillet. With some well chosen ingredients, you can create an experience like beef carpaccio, but as carpaccio di bresaola. Of course, the classic pairing is bresaola e rucola - air-dried beef with rocket, and that’s where we start here.

Our bresaola is just topside, cured with salt and a few spices and doused in good wine. After that it’s hung for a while to refine the texture and develop the flavour. It’s as simple as that.

To make the dish more interesting, we’ve added parmesan, cherry tomatoes, walnut oil and lemon. Dressing your bresaola and rocket with this creates a fantastic salad that works for lunch or as a starter.

The recipe

Serves 2

Ingredients

• 100g air-dried beef
• 200g rocket
• 100g cherry tomatoes
• 50g aged, hard cheese shavings (parmesan classically, but it’s nice to find a local option)
• 30ml walnut oil, or extra virgin olive oil
• Lemon
• Salt
• Black pepper

Method

1. Lay out the slices of air-dried beef on two plates, or a sharing board.
2. Arrange the rocket around the beef slices.
3. Slice the cherry tomatoes in half and arrange around the beef.
4. Scatter the cheese over the plates/boards.
5. Dress with salt, pepper, the walnut oil, and a squeeze of lemon.
6. Enjoy for much longer than you spent making it, ideally with wine.