This white wine marinated steak with blue cheese is easy to make, full of flavor and makes a great tapas dish alongside your favorites or make it a main.
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As you might have read here before, I have been lucky enough to live in Spain twice and have also traveled around. It is a place I love and the food is definitely a big part of that.
Spanish food is typically nothing fancy, but it makes use of good ingredients and shows them off. It's hard to find fault in that.
My love of Spanish food
I have so many fantastic food-related memories from my time in Spain, like enjoying calçots with romesco sauce in a rural restaurant in Catalunya, to fideua overlooking the sea.
I will always remember when I first moved there, to a small town in Catalunya. There Spanish (which I was still learning) was a second language for most after Catalan (which I didn't know a word of). I wondered in the first day or two if I had done the right thing.
Then I found the main market with the most amazing display of fresh fish, that wasn't that expensive, cheeses and lots of fresh produce, and I started to feel a bit happier. Once I then made friends and got to know many of the local tapas bars and restaurants it become home.
This white wine marinated steak with blue cheese is in all honesty not a dish I particularly remember in Spain itself. It is more a type of dish from the Asturias region that I only visited briefly, but I have had a version of it a few times since in Spanish restaurants elsewhere.
It's not always made with wine but it adds a nice flavor and helps tenderize the meat. Traditionally this would be made with Cabrales cheese, a fantastically flavorful cheese made in the Picos de Europa mountains, but if you can't find it gorgonzola will be a pretty good alternative.
You can also make this with pork tenderloin, but I think beef sirloin is particularly tasty in this dish.
Steps to make white wine marinated steak
It's a very easy dish to make and as with many Spanish dishes, relies on good quality ingredients. I've potentially made it a little longer to make by infusing some oil with garlic first, but it's still very quick.
- Warm oil with garlic to infuse then set aside to cool.
- Mix wine, mustard and garlic oil then add steak. Leave to marinade.
- Warm a skillet and sear steak on both sides. Add a little of the marinade and some parsley towards the end.
- Once cooked, let it rest before slicing and topping with the crumbled blue cheese.
This dish can be served in various ways, depending on what suits. It works well as a more traditional tapas sharing dish alongside others such as a Spanish cheese plate, croquetas or salad.
I'd recommend pan con tomate/bread with tomato and the salads I shared as part of my summer Spanish tapas. You could also serve it as a more regular main eg along with potatoes and other vegetables such as grilled asparagus.
Either way, this white wine marinated steak will be a delicious addition to your meal without being that difficult to make. I know I'll be making this again soon.
Try these other favorite tapas:
- Pan con tomate (tomato bread)
- Healthier patatas bravas
- Blistered Padron peppers
- Pinchos morunos (aromatically spiced pork skewers)
- Plus get more Spanish recipes in the archives.
White wine marinated steak with blue cheese
Ingredients
- 3 tablespoon olive oil good quality, min. virgin
- 2 cloves garlic thinly sliced
- ¼ cup white wine
- ½ teaspoon Dijon mustard
- ½ lb sirloin steak tips
- salt and pepper
- 1 tablespoon fresh parsley chopped
- ½ oz blue cheese ideally Cabrales but gorgonzola is a good alternative
Instructions
- Warm the olive oil with the garlic slices in it in a relatively small skillet/frying pan (but big enough to hold the steak) over a medium heat. Warm until the garlic becomes aromatic and is sizzling but not browning. Remove from the heat and allow to cool slightly.
- Mix the wine and mustard in a dish just a little bigger than your steak. Add the oil and garlic once it has cooled a bit and mix. Don't wash out the skillet as you will use it to cook the steak.
- Place the steak in the wine-oil mixture and turn so it is coated. Leave to marinate at room temperature for around 20 minutes turning once or twice. The meat will start to change color a little.
- Warm the skillet/frying pan to a medium-high heat. Remove the steak from the marinade - don't throw it out - and grind a little salt and pepper on either side of the steak.
- Add the steak to the warm pan and cook for around 3-5 minutes on each side, depending on thickness and level of doneness you are looking for. Once you've cooked it for almost as much as it needs on the second side, add some of the marinade mixture (around 2tbsp if you have ½lb steak, around double for 1lb) and ½tbsp parsley and allow it to cook and reduce for a minute or two.
- Remove the steak from the heat, transfer the steak to a board and let it rest for 5min. Slice and serve with the heated marinade mixture over the top then top with the remaining parsley and the crumbled blue cheese.
Notes
Nutrition
See some of my favorite cooking tools and ingredients in the Caroline's Cooking Amazon store.
Try these other tapas ideas:
- Champiñones al Ajillo by Culinary Adventures with Camilla
- Citrus & Fennel Marinated Olives by Go Epicurista
- Gildas Picantes – Spicy Anchovy Olive Skewers by Food Lust People Love
- edded Manchego and a Bleu Cheese Crumble by The Freshman Cook
- Serrano Ham & Goat Cheese Croquettes by My World Simplified
- Serrano Ham Bites with Melon and Cheese by Palatable Pastime
- Zanahorias Aliñadas (Spanish Marinated Carrots) by Tara's Multicultural Table
Linda says
Perfectly cooked steak & love the addition of the blue cheese! Thanks for bringing this to Fiesta Friday 🙂
Linda~
Fabulous Fare Sisters
Caroline's Cooking says
Thanks Linda, steak and blue cheese are so good together. Happy FF to you
Sarah | Curious Cuisiniere says
Thanks for hosting such a fun event! We love steak and blue cheese, so this tapas is right up our alley!
Caroline's Cooking says
Thanks Sarah, it's a tasty combination and this variation on it is delicious.
Tara says
Thanks for hosting! This marinated steak looks amazing! I'm so jealous of your time spent in Spain.
Caroline's Cooking says
Thanks Tara, it was a great place to live for a while, especially from a food perspective.
Barrie says
This looks amazing! I love steak and blue cheese, so this would be a great app for my folks!
Caroline's Cooking says
Thanks Barrie, hope you all enjoy it!
Juventia | Foodiestory.com says
Love the look of the beef. I've tried steak with blue cheese sauce in a restaurant before and it tasted really good, but I had no idea it was from Spain.
Caroline's Cooking says
Thanks Juventia, it's not specifically a Spanish thing, really, other countries have similar dishes, just Spain has a version with Cabrales, a favorite blue cheese from Spain and it works well as a tapas too. Any excuse to eat it, really!
Laura Dembowski says
I never would have thought to marinate steak in white wine. I bet it adds are really nice flavor though. You cooked that steak perfectly!
Caroline's Cooking says
Thanks Laura, the wine flavor is subtle but tasty. All in all it's a delicious dish.
Amy Freeze says
Blue cheese is my favorite!
Caroline's Cooking says
I agree Amy, blue cheese can be so tasty, and goes really well with beef.