Grilled veal porterhouse chop

In Canada the veal chop, among BBQ lovers, is called meat tomahawk, exactly like the Indian axe, but this is meat, juicy, full of taste and is one of my favorite cuts of meat, not only for the flavor, but also for the softness of the meat. The shape of the meat tomahawk is almost identical to the famous Indian axe and sometimes, if it is not cooked to perfection, you want to throw it at those who have ruined such a good piece of beef! Today I propose a simple and linear tomahawk recipe to make with your barbecue, where the dish alternates a few, delicious flavors, to create an incredible symphony of taste. The meat of the tomahawk gives way to the sweetness of the pepper sauce that blunts and sweetens the impact of the juiciness of the chop. If you want you can combine a couple of rolls of asparagus and prosciutto and snow peas sautéed in butter to complete. You will not struggle to find it from your trusted butcher: the tomahawk is nothing more than a veal or beef chop, just cut it with the bone, for a more spectacular effect.

Ingredients 

For the pepper sauce and sour cream

1 large bell pepper

80 grams of sour cream

15 grams of chopped parsley

2 garlic cloves, chopped

1 piece of ginger, maximum 1 cm

salt and pepper

Rub for meat tomahawk steak

1 veal chop (tomahawk)

paprika

1/4 teaspoon cumin powder

salt and pepper

Preparation

When I turn on the barbecue one of the first things that comes to mind are peppers. No matter what I use them for, for a sauce, roasted, as a pizza topping, in salad or sweet and sour, at the end grill a pepper and you will never regret it! Their sweet, smoky taste goes well with virtually every type of meat and BBQ preparation. Roast the pepper on the grill in infernal heat, even over the flames: by now you know the technique, the skin must carbonize, 15 minutes. Turn it from all sides and when it is nice burnt put it in a bowl sealed with film. Leave it in the sauna for 10 minutes and then peel it easy. Cut it and remove the seeds and white filaments and cut it coarsely. To prepare the sauce with sour cream and peppers, put all the ingredients in a mixer and blend until you get a homogeneous sauce and then put it in the refrigerator until ready to use it. Remove the meat tomahawk from the refrigerator at least 30 minutes before cooking. As you may have noticed the rub I chose is nothing particularly strange. It serves just to give him some pepper! Massage the meat tomahawk with the rub and then put it on the grid with direct heat. Cook the veal chop for 12 minutes, turning once for a medium cooking, to the blood. With an instant thermometer check the internal temperature of the meat tomahawk: the chop is ready when it reaches 55 degrees centigrade inside. When the meat tomahawk is ready, remove it from the grill and let it rest for a few minutes, then serve it with the pepper sauce and sour cream. If you want a quick side dish, wrap two asparagus in a slice of prosciutto and grill them for 5 minutes and the dish is ready!

Which wine to pair with meat tomahawk with pepper sauce?

If you want to pair an even more sumptuous and spicy wine, uncork a Negroamaro. Let's go back to the characteristics of this great wine of Puglia. The aromas are intense, balsamic, sumptuous and enveloping, but dominated by a dark and austere note of earth and salt, plums and olives and rhubarb. Do not expect a sunny wine like Primitivo, as a wine certainly very fruity, but also spicy with clear hints of pepper, roots, licorice, traces of Mediterranean scrub, eucalyptus, endless flowers and a thousand aromatic herbs. In any case, to recognize it, look for the combination of plum and olive and you will never be very wrong.

On the palate the structure and the caloric sensation given by alcohol are immediately perceptible. It is not a subtle wine, indeed it is all played on a delicate balance where a warm and ripe fruit finds momentum in very juicy and tasty tannins, but decisive and a remarkable acidity. In short, it is a wine with very strong characteristics: strong tannins, very sharp acidity, warmth and roundness given by a high alcohol content. Earthy finish with tannins that open and take the face of a thousand roots, licorice, olives and gentian. The salt never fails, the iodized returns give thickness to the wine and support it, breaking the predominance of the fruit.

Negroamaro is not a wine of very easy reading, it takes time to do it, because similar and all this extract turns into nuances and smoothes the corners and develops its tertiary potential, but those who know how to wait will be able to savor a great red, immortal as evolution, but also very elegant. Just don't rush.