Costata Argentina

costata Argentina

It is time to grab the beef at its best part - in Italian it is called "costata" (rib steak but without bones) - and present you one of my favourite meals, the costata Argentina.

Today I started my journey to discover local markets (as I am quite sick of CBA, Interspar or any other commercial center shops - their quality is questionable!) and I went to Vásárcsarnok to test. If I need to use only one word to describe this experience, it would be: "non ho parole" which literally means "I have no words" :) The atmosphere of the whole building and the 3 floor market stalls were amazing and for one moment it felt like walking in the little market of my hometown, north Milano. The producers of local products and ingredients fulfilled my eyes wherever I looked - many colours, nice and more quiet people compared to us, loud Italians. Another similarity was the crowd - like Italians at home, everyone is focused, on a mission to find the best ingredient for cooking - so I also tried to find my way to the best stand for meats as I planned this steak for dinner tonight.

As it is a bit late for dinner, I tried to take care about your "bella figura" and prepare something calorie-free :) so this beautiful costata is embedded on a simple salad. Red meat preparation always depends on personal taste - I like it medium with some reddness inside.

Hope you enjoy the view - let me know if and when I can prepare it also for you and your friends!

Ciao a tutti & buon appetito!
Marco

Insalata caprese

Insalata caprese

As you know, Italian women take care every day about their body, their figure - we have an expression "la bella figura" which refers to not only how a woman looks but how she feels.

This salad is not a typical winter one, but very famous and for sure you also know it - called insalata caprese which combines mozzarella, tomatoes as the base. Apart from that, you can add fresh basilico, oregano and any type of salad - here I also added some salad leaves to make the taste more exciting and to represent the tricolor flag of my beloved Italia!

Hope you enjoy this little appetizer!

Ciao a tutti & buon appetito!
Marco