One of our favorite restaurants
in town is Favazza's on The Hill. It is a consistently wonderful, enormously
friendly eatery in the quaint Italian part of St. Louis known to locals as “The Hill” (it's really more of an incline than a hill, if truth be
told, but who am I to judge?). Their Steak Mudega is one I routinely order and
have always enjoyed, so I was very pleased to see the recipe for this dish in
last week's food section of the St. Louis
Post-Dispatch. It's not a difficult dish to prepare when you do your prep
work in advance as I did. I also seasoned the heck out of the Italian Bread
Crumbs to give the steak a lot of delicious flavor. As often happens, my version wasn't
nearly as good as the excellent one served at the restaurant, but it did make
for a very special midweek meal.
Favazza’s Steak Mudega
Yield: 4 servings
For the sauce
1 tablespoon olive oil
8 tablespoons (1 stick) butter,
divided use
3 ounces thinly sliced Volpi*
prosciutto, diced
12 ounces button mushrooms,
sliced 1/3-inch thick
4 tablespoons all-purpose flour
1¼ cups white table
wine (not sweet, not dry)
2 cups chicken broth
Salt, black pepper and white
pepper to taste
For the steaks
4 (8-ounce) center cut filet
mignon
¼ cup olive oil
Italian breadcrumbs seasoned
with flour, granulated garlic, salt, white pepper, parsley and “lots of love”
4 (1-ounce) slices St. Louis-style
cheese such as Provel**
Freshly chopped parsley
Make the sauce. In a large,
heavy skillet, heat oil and 6 tablespoons butter until shimmery on medium high
heat. Add prosciutto and saute until dark and crispy, taking care to avoid
burning. Stir in mushrooms and cook about halfway, just until turning tender.
Sprinkle mushrooms with flour, stir in.
Deglaze skillet with wine, bring
to a boil, let reduce by about half. (Timing wise, start cooking steaks now.)
Add broth, bring to a boil, let reduce by half to a syrupy consistency. Stir in
remaining butter to thicken the sauce. Season with salt and peppers,
remembering the prosciutto is already salty. If needed, keep warm.
Cook the steaks. Dip steaks in
olive oil, dredge in bread crumbs. Cook steaks on grill to desired doneness;
add a slice of Provel for last 2 minutes.
To serve Favazza’s-style,
arrange steaks on a plate; surround and top with sauce. Sprinkle with parsley.
*This is a local brand. If you
don’t have Volpi in your area, just buy the best quality that you can find.
**There’s no substitute for St.
Louis’s own Provel cheese, but provolone might work.
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