Steak Pizziaola

1 lb steak tips
3 cloves of garlic, minced
1/2 - 1 tsp basil
1/2 - 1 tsp oregano
1/2 tsp thyme
1/4 cup minced onion
salt and pepper to taste
28 oz can crushed tomatoes (I used one seasoned with Italian Herbs)
1/2 cup frozen peas
1 cup red wine

Brown the onion in a medium pan, in a tbl of olive oil, then push it off to one side. Season steak with salt, pepper, basil, oregano and thyme. Sear it on both sides then remove it from the pan. Add the garlic and cook it till aromatic. Deglaze the pan with the wine. Reduce the wine to about a quarter cup then pour in the tomatoes. Put the steak back in and let simmer till tender. If the sauce starts to get too thick cover it. Once the steak is tender, add the peas and let cook for a couple minutes. Then either take out the steak, cut it up and add it back into the sauce or let people cut it on their plates. Serve over pasta.

--------------------------------------------------------------------

So this recipe is adapted from one posted by Michele over at My Italian Grandmother. I've been meaning to make it for months and finally managed to recently. It is wicked good. I did it a bit different than she does, for one I had steak tips on hand so I used that instead of the little steaks she used. Which means mine took longer to get tender. Plus I added some onion and red wine, because I had some that wanted using. But either way it's made, I'm sure it's awesome.

First, I browned up some onions in a bunch of olive oil. More than they needed, really, but I figured the rest could be used to brown the tips. While the onion was going I pounded the tips a bit and seasoned them with basil, oregano, thyme, salt and pepper. Then I just pushed the browned onion off to the side and slapped the steak in there. Browned them up (stirring the onions every once in a while) then added the garlic. Once the garlic had the edge taken off of it, maybe 30 seconds, I pulled the steaks off and deglazed with some red wine. This one was a rather bland Shiraz, but reducing a cup of it to a quarter cup brought out some flavor. Once the wine was reduce I tossed in the tomatoes. I only had ones with Italian herbs already added, so that's what I used. Came out just fine. Then I just tossed the tips in and let them simmer for about an hour and a half, two hours. Then I turned off the heat, let them cool and tossed the whole deal in a container since I wasn't eating it that night. I just needed to cook the tips since I had defrosted them. But, the next day I whipped them out and poured them into a pot to reheat. Well, I tried to pour it. A bit thick, it was. Perhaps some friendly shaking would loosen it up? Nope. So I said screw it and just used a spoon. Promising though, I love a nice thick sauce. So I simmered it for about a half hour to make sure everything was hot then tossed in the peas. Mixed it up and served it over pasta. Here is a shot of the beef so you can see how pull apart tender it was. Good stuff kids. Sitting in the fridge overnight really let the flavors mingle. Some garlic bread would have been perfect with it to sop up any leftover sauce, maybe a glass or two of a nice red. You know, one with flavor. I actually recently had a Greg Norman Shiraz that would have been really good with this. Hmm, maybe I should discuss drink pairings with my recipes. What do you guys think?