Tri-Tip Steak With Tomato Romesco
Updated Oct. 11, 2023

- Total Time
- 45 minutes
- Rating
- Comments
- Read comments
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Ingredients
- 1tri-tip steak, about 2 to 2½ pounds, or other 2-inch-thick steak
- Salt
- freshly ground black pepper
- 1cup cherry tomatoes
- 2tablespoons almonds, shelled
- 3garlic cloves, peeled and lightly crushed
- 1jalapeño pepper, seeded and chopped, optional
- 1 to 2tablespoons sherry or red wine vinegar, or to taste
- ⅓cup olive oil
- ½teaspoon pimentón or other chili powder, optional
Preparation
- Step 1
Heat oven to 500 degrees. Generously season both sides of steak with salt and pepper. Put a large cast-iron skillet over high heat. When it is very hot, add steak to one side of pan and tomatoes, almonds, garlic cloves and jalapeños, if you are using them, to the other. Sear steak for 3 to 5 minutes, stirring tomato mixture once or twice.
- Step 2
Once a nice crust has formed on one side of steak, turn it over, carefully transfer the now-charred tomato mixture to a food processor, and put pan in oven. (If tomatoes are not a bit blackened, leave them in pan and check again after a minute or two in oven.) Cook until steak is rare to medium-rare, about 6 to 12 minutes longer depending on its thickness (an instant-read thermometer will register 125 degrees when steak is medium-rare). Transfer steak to a plate and let it rest for 5 to 10 minutes.
- Step 3
While steak is cooking or resting, add vinegar and olive oil to tomato mixture in food processor, and season with salt, pepper and pimentón or chili powder if using. Process, adding more olive oil or vinegar as you like, until mixture reaches desired consistency. Sauce should still be a little crunchy from almonds.
- Step 4
Slice steak thinly, against grain. Serve with sauce.
Private Notes
Comments
Great, simple recipe. I had a 3lb steak; it was perfectly done after 14 minutes in the oven. I charred the romesco ingredients separately, placed them in a bowl and used an immersion blender, which worked great with less cleanup than a food processor would have required. The sauce was a bit oily, so I'd use 1/4 cup olive oil next time instead of 1/3 cup. 1T sherry vinegar was plenty. In fact 2t might have been better. Salt the romesco generously to balance the vinegar.
Based on prior comments, I used a separate small cast iron skillet for the tomato mixture. I figured the short time of commingled ingredients added little benefit to the sauce. Ioved the sauce, but wish I would have used the outdoor grill for the tri-tip; or, I wish I was not using a forty year old electric oven due to the amount of smoke. An excellent recipe.
Great recipe - I used chopped garlic, shallot, red pepper, almonds and cherry tomatoes for the sauce - cooked adjacent to the meat and transferred to food processor - added red wine vinegar, olive oil salt pepper and chili powder - amazing concoction.
We seared the first side in the skillet but finished on the grill. I might sear in a skillet ON the grill next time to avoid the smoke. We enjoyed this recipe.
Fabulous. As others have written: Watch the almonds and garlic as they chars ahead of the tomatoes. I pulled them out of the pan before the tomatoes. Even my modern electric oven won't go up to 500F. So I cooked the steak a bit longer. I also used less oil, the Tri Tip cut has enough fat to balance the tomatoes and vinegar.
You can get by with a little less oil in the romesco. I thought 1T of sherry vinegar was enough. It was a 7% strength. The sauce was very good. I smoked the tri-tip outdoors in the pellet smoker. Because it was dark and cold outside I didn’t sear it on the grill.
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