Steak, whichever way you like it

Creativity—as anyone who’s ever watched a three-year-old “eat” something they don’t like knows—can manifest itself in many ways.

Take Marge for example. Her claim to creative fame is her unique use of condiments. For breakfast she likes her sunny side eggs sprinkled with onion powder and served with ketchup on one and Worcestershire sauce on the other. Her toast is either dusted with pumpkin pie spice or carob powder and brown sugar (depending on her mood), and she eats French fries with mayonnaise, cocktail sauce and relish on the side.

But Marge’s real claim to notoriety is the way she eats steak. I won’t give you the gruesome details; suffice it to say there are no less than six different sauce bottles and pre-mixed spice containers involved, the contents of which she insists on applying in a certain order and only at the table.

Watching Marge eat is like being with a 40-year-old four-year-old and I’m always overcome by an irresistible urge to don safety glasses and a lab jacket.

Short of Marge’s Molotov extremism, I’m inclined to think steak should be eaten whichever way you like it, even if that means smothered in steak sauce. I usually use only salt and pepper. Yani likes to add oregano, but sometimes for a variation I’ll fix this delicious tomato sauce.

Tomato sauce for steak

Ingredients

2 medium sized red peppers

2 lbs ripe Roma tomatoes (paste type)

1 oz finely minced onion

1/2 cup dry white wine

1/2 tsp coarse fresh ground black pepper

1/2 tsp salt

1/4 tsp garlic

Optional (for some heat): 1/2 Cayenne pepper minced finely

Method

Set oven to 200 degrees. Wash and slice peppers, removing seeds. Wash and slice tomatoes. Lay sliced peppers and tomatoes on foil-lined baking trays and slow roast for one hour. Remove peppers and leave tomatoes in oven for another one and one-half to two hours, until tomatoes are semi-dehydrated. Remove from oven and cool. Carefully remove skins from peppers and tomatoes and discard skins. Puree tomatoes and peppers in food processor. In a medium saucepan boil finely minced onion in wine until only about two tablespoons liquid remain. Add pureed tomatoes and peppers, salt, pepper and garlic (and Cayenne pepper if you’re using it). Simmer for 15 minutes uncovered. Keep warm in top of double boiler until steaks are ready. Serve over steaks.