Now that we are in the new house, our grill has come out of storage! I swear my husband is more excited about having the grill back than anything. We grilled steaks, baking potatoes, and asparagus as the first meal in the new house, and it was perfect. Then we realized that there was a red on docket for this weeks 52 Weeks of Wine, a Barbera. After doing some research, I decided to pair it with some thin hanger steaks covered in a mushroom sauce. I also feel strongly about steak and potatoes, so we did roasted potatoes and green beans to go with it. Overall, very good meal. The mushrooms were enhanced by the Barbera and beef broth, and the Barbera really shone in the sauce. We weren’t particularly fond of it on its own, but we’ll get there.

Steak with Mushroom Sauce

• 2 thin hanger steaks (ours had 3, but that was the smallest package we found)
• Steak seasoning- pick your favorite!
• 8 oz sliced mushrooms
• 1/2 c dry red wine
• 1/2 c beef broth
• 1/4 c unsalted butter, divided in half
• 2 cloves garlic, minced
• 1 clove garlic, smashed
• 1 tbsp(ish) cornstarch
• 2 sprigs of thyme
• 10 small potatoes (I love the colorful ones!)
• green beans
• salt
• pepper

Melt half of the butter (about 6 tbsp) in a pan on medium high heat. Once the butter has melted, add your mushrooms and one clove of the minced garlic. Stir until the mushrooms are golden brown, and then add your wine and beef broth. Let the liquid reduce by half, and add your cornstarch to allow it to thicken up a little bit. The Barbera we used for the wine smelled so good as the alcohol cooked off and melded with the beef broth. The liquids soaked into the mushrooms and made them really tender and flavorful.

Meanwhile, put the steak seasoning on both sides of the steak and grill on both sides. Melt the other part of the butter in a pan, add the smashed garlic and thyme sprigs. Bring the steaks inside and let them finish off in the pan of butter, occasionally using a spoon to spoon the butter over top the steaks. Once they’re all done, serve with the mushroom sauce on top!

For the potatoes I sliced them thinly and tossed them in olive oil, flaky salt, pepper, and the other minced garlic clove. We have some really good flaky salt called Maldon Sea Salt Flakes, and they just stick to the potatoes and cook beautifully in the oven. They cooked in the oven on 350 F until they were halfway done, then I moved the potatoes to half the sheet and added the green beans to the pan. The green beans were tossed in the same bowl I used to toss the potatoes, so just salt, pepper, and olive oil. They cooked together until we were all done with the steaks!

Barbera

Barbera is an Italian wine that is produced quickly and is relatively inexpensive. Its color was more purple than a Pinot Noir or the Carignan, which tend to lean to a deep red. It was light in tannin and high in acidity, which almost immediately dried out your mouth when you drank it. It had some dark cherry notes, and maybe a hint of jammy strawberry. I prefer jammy strawberries on my biscuit, and less in my wine. Honestly, it wasn’t my favorite. I’m a big fan of white wines, which is so basic, I know. The big, bold reds are just not my jam. If you like big reds, I would definitely try a Barbera with my next meal of dark meat, mushrooms, or herbs.