Ingredients for 4-5 people:1 steak on the bone weighing at least 1.5-1.8 kg (bear in mind that 30% of the weight will be bone)(1) coarse salt extra virgin olive oil pepper (freshly milled if possible)
To prepare your “tagliata” the first thing you need is a griddle or grill (the ideal thing, to tell the truth, would be a barbecue)... if you use a griddle wait until it becomes red-hot, while if you have the possibility of using a barbecue, rake the embers so they are even, trying not to disturb them too much. The embers are ready when they have produced a little ash (here we say that the fire is ready when it has a “white face”), otherwise they may play a nasty joke on you – burning the meat! The high temperature of the griddle immediately sears the meat, preventing it from losing its juices and keeping it tender and tasty.
There are two rules for a good “tagliata”: the meat must be good and, when you cook it, it mustn’t be straight out of the fridge! The steak should be at room temperature, or better still between 30 °C and 40 °C so there isn’t too much of a difference between it and the griddle, which would burn the outside and leave the inside cold.
Take your steak, sprinkle it with coarse salt on both sides and put it over the heat. Don’t worry, the meat will only absorb the necessary amount of salt, which also helps close its pores and therefore keep the juices inside, so that the steak doesn’t burn but cooks perfectly. Cook it first on one side and then on the other, for 3-5 minutes each side or according to the thickness of the steak and how well you like it done. Then stand it “upright” on the griddle, resting on the bone so the parts closest to it cook as well. When it’s ready, remove the steak from the heat and, without detaching the meat from the bone, cut it in slices (“tagliata” literally means cut in Italian) about 1.5-2 cm thick in a fan shape; now put it back over the heat for a moment so that the inside can cook perfectly (but don’t overdo it or the meat will become tough!).
Arrange the “fan” of slices on a serving dish together with the bone: it may not be chic to nibble at the meat that’s left on the bone, but it’s the best part and absolutely mouth-watering! Sprinkle your “tagliata” with some freshly ground pepper, finish off with a drizzle of olive oil and... buon appetito!
(1)There are two schools of thought when it comes to the cut: one favours the fillet, delicious and generally soft as butter, the other prefers sirloin, not as “buttery soft” but much more tasty.