A Big Piece of Meat: T-Bone Fiorentina

I've seen Mario Batali make this on one of his shows.  He uses a 3 inch think, 3 lb. T-Bone.  Yowza.  I did it though.  It makes one impressive presentation.  Mario simply says, "place meat on grill and cook until well charred."  Excuse me but there's a lot of olive oil on that meat as well as fat.  You need to watch this thing like crazy or you're going to have hockey pucks for dinner.  Giant one's, though. Also, none of our friends eat rare meat so I cooked them for 30 minutes and then rested it. It turned out spectacularly. I had med rare to med.   Oh, I do steak the Tuscan way by grilling lemons and then before serving, squeeze on the steak. Enjoy.

Makes 4

1 tbls. chopped fresh rosemary

1 tbls. chopped fresh sage

1 tbls. chopped fresh thyme

2 tbls. kosher salt, more to taste

2 tbls. freshly groun pepper, plus more to taste

1 T-bone, at least 3 inches thick, 3-3 1/2 lbs.

2 tbls. pure olive oil

3/4 cup extra virgin olive oil

6 cloves garlic, thinly sliced

4 lbs. baby spinach, stems removed, washed and spun dry

2 lemons, halved

Juice of 1 lemon

1 tbls. coarse salt

Preheat the grill (I have gas so I got it to 500 degrees)

In a small bowl mix together all of the spices including salt and pepper. Add in the 2 tbls. olive oil.  Mix.  Pat the steak dry and smoother the steak with the spice/oil mixture.  Place on a clean grill and cook until well charred (note above) about 12 minutes, turn and then cook an additional 9 minutes for rare.  Remove from grill and let rest for 8 minutes.  While resting, place the lemons cut side down and grill for 5-7 minutes until they are well charred.

Meanwhile, in a large saute pan, heat 1/4 cup of the EXVO over high heat until smoking.  Add the garlic and cook until light brown.  Be careful not to burn them.  Add the spinach and stir until wilted.  Remove from heat and add lemon juice and  salt and pepper to taste.  Set aside.

Carve the filet and the strip from the bone and slice.  Divide the steak among four plates, squeeze grilled lemon on each and plate with the spinach.  Drizzle with the rest of the olive oil.  Season with coarse salt.  Serve.