Chef Dad - Tortellini and Steak Caesar Salad

Somehow, I’ve become the main chef in our household, even more so since I’ve been laid off. I’m always on the lookout for new recipes, and modifying the ones that I have, and thought that I could start sharing them with you, dear readers!

I guess I’ll just start with last night’s dinner – a caesar salad mixed with tortellini and broiled flank steak. Rhonda found the recipe on AllRecipes.com and last night was the first time I made it. I mostly went by the recipe this time, but I already have some ideas on what to try differently next time.

Anyway, here’s the original recipe:

Ingredients:
* 1 (9 ounce) package cheese tortellini
* 1 pound flank steak
* garlic powder to taste
* salt and pepper to taste
* 1 tablespoon olive oil
* 2 heads romaine lettuce, torn into bite-size pieces
* 2 (2.25 ounce) cans small pitted black olives, drained
* 1 cup Caesar-style croutons
* 2 small fresh tomatoes, chopped
* 1 (8 ounce) bottle Caesar salad dressing

Directions:
1. Bring a large pot of lightly salted water to a boil. Place pasta in the pot, cook for 7 to 9 minutes, until al dente, and drain.
2. Preheat the oven broiler. Season steak with garlic powder, salt, and pepper; rub with olive oil. Place steak in a baking dish, and broil 5 minutes on each side, or to desired doneness. Slice diagonally into thin strips.
3. In a bowl, toss the cooked tortellini, lettuce, olives, croutons, tomatoes, and dressing. Top with steak strips to serve.

Obviously, you can use whatever kind of steak you like here, but I bought the flank steak for $1.50 per pound. Even using two pounds, like I did, Rhonda and I ate our fill for dinner and lunch, with at least one more serving left, for right at ten dollars. Not bad at all.

Ok, so my suggestions. Tenderize your steak – especially if you get a cheap cut. I had a rough day yesterday, so beating up some meat (insert sophomoric joke here) was somewhat therapeutic. The last thing you want is a bunch of tough meat in your salad, so tenderization is time well spent.

If you plan on eating leftovers, like we did, keep your croutons and dressing on the side. Just in the time that it took us to feed Harper after I was done cooking, our croutons got very soggy and were mostly mush the next day. The salad was still good, but I’m sure it would have been better with crispy croutons.

You may want to cook the tortellini ahead of time and cool it in the fridge so that it doesn’t bring the rest of the salad up to lukewarm temperature. It wouldn’t be a terrible idea to do the same with the steak, but it should go on at the last minute and likely won’t affect the salad too much.

I’m curious to try other spices and herbs on the steak, though I’m not sure what I’ll try first. I also think that you could use more vegetables, but I’m not quite sure what to use next. Honestly, this recipe was the closest I’ve come to perfect “out of the box” in awhile.

Give it a try, come back, and let’s compare notes!

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