The Vibrant Sauce That Will Effortlessly Elevate Your Steak Dinner

From Hollandaise to sauce au poivre, there's no limit to the range of sauces that can elevate your steak meal. The variety of textures, tastes, and complexities may leave you stumped about what to add, but there's one oldie but goodie that's as easy as it is delicious: pesto. While pesto is more commonly associated with pasta dishes, it works equally well with a quality cut of red meat.

The best basic pesto recipes share a flavor profile similar to chimichurri, one of the more popular and well-known steak condiments. Rich notes of earthy basil and pine nuts mix with the smooth taste of olive oil to create a fresh, hearty complement that pairs excellently with red meat. However, while chimichurri relies on acidic ingredients and parsley to deliver a clean, vibrant flavor, pesto leans on the heady aroma of parmesan to create a tasty, heavier paste. This paste pairs well with basic salt-and-pepper seasoning or a light marinade of soy, garlic, and herbs.

How you incorporate pesto into your steak dinner is entirely up to you. Spooned over sliced flank steak, it coats each individual piece and mingles with the meat's natural juices. Spread over a whole cut, it acts as a softer flavor booster, absorbing some of the steak's seasoning.

Regardless of how you choose to serve it, keep in mind that pesto contains a significant amount of oil, and as a heavier condiment, it pairs best with leaner steak cuts. While there's nothing wrong with adding it to something with more marbling, like ribeye, some people may find the combination a bit too rich.

Filet mignon and its more affordable cousin, the petite tender, are among the leanest cuts available. While neither lacks flavor by any means, they do lack fat, so a bit of flavor-boosting goes a long way. The oil in pesto won't overwhelm your palate since it's likely the only fat present in the dish, and the strong notes of basil are a great accompaniment to lean slices of high-quality red meat. Try topping your filets with a spoonful of pesto or coating them in the sauce before wrapping them in pastry for a twist on beef Wellington.

Many chefs cook New York strips hot and fast to develop a perfect crust. The crisp texture and roasted flavor of a properly Maillard-induced crust, combined with the smoothness and herbaceousness of pesto, creates a delicious contrast unlike any other meat-and-sauce combination. Most of this cut's fat is concentrated in a cap along the edge of the steak, allowing diners to decide whether they want to try the rich combination of fat and pesto, or simply trim it off to discard later.