Thirteen ingredients and forty-five minutes, with one pot doing the linguine and the broccoli together.
The sauce is a butter sauce rather than a cream one. Five tablespoons of butter with mustard, lemon and paprika whisked through it.
Why This Recipe Works
- Adding the broccoli for the last two minutes cooks it without a second pan.
- Searing flank in a very hot skillet chars the edges before the middle overcooks.
- Slicing across the grain is what makes flank steak tender.
- Whisking Dijon into melted butter emulsifies the sauce so it coats rather than splits.
- Pasta water loosens the butter to a coating instead of a slick.
Ingredient Notes
- Flank steak
- A pound and a quarter, seared whole and sliced across the grain afterwards. Flank has long fibres and the knife is what tenderises it.
- Butter
- Five tablespoons. This is a butter sauce rather than a cream one, and the quantity is the body of it.
- Dijon mustard
- A tablespoon, whisked in. It emulsifies the butter and lemon so the sauce coats rather than separating into a slick.
- Parsley and chives
- Two tablespoons and one. Both go into the sauce, which is where the yellow-green colour comes from.
How to Make It
Linguine, broccoli in for the last two minutes
Cook linguine until al dente. Add broccoli during the final 2 minutes so it stays bright green and firm; reserve pasta water.
Sear the flank to 145F, rest, slice across the grain
Season flank steak and sear in a very hot skillet until charred at the edges and at least 145 degrees Fahrenheit. Rest 3 minutes, then slice across the grain.
Cowboy butter in the same skillet
Melt butter in the skillet with garlic. Whisk in Dijon, lemon juice, smoked paprika, parsley, and chives to make a yellow-green herb butter sauce.
Toss to coated, not creamy
Toss linguine and broccoli with the cowboy butter, loosening with a little pasta water until coated but not creamy.
Sliced steak on top
Top with sliced steak. Do not add cheese, soy glaze, tortellini, or chilli garnish.
Cowboy Butter, Component by Component
Cowboy butter is the heart of this dish, so it is worth naming what the sauce actually IS - a YELLOW-GREEN butter, which is a colour that has to be built.
- The body5 tbsp unsalted butter
- Melted in the skillet the steak just left, so the fond goes into the sauce. Five tablespoons for 10 oz of pasta is a lot of butter and it is deliberately not cream - there is no cream or tomato sauce here, and butter loosened with pasta water coats where cream would blanket.
- Aromatic depth3 garlic cloves, minced
- Melted WITH the butter rather than fried first. Butter comes up to temperature gently, so garlic softens in it and perfumes the fat instead of browning and turning bitter.
- The emulsifier - and the sharpness1 tbsp Dijon mustard
- The quiet structural ingredient. Mustard is an emulsifier: whisked into melted butter with lemon juice it holds fat and acid together so the sauce COATS rather than splitting into a slick on the plate. It also carries most of the sharpness.
- Acid and colour1 tbsp fresh lemon juice and 1 tsp smoked paprika
- Lemon cuts five tablespoons of butter; smoked paprika is where the YELLOW half of yellow-green comes from, along with a smoke note that suits a charred steak.
- The green2 tbsp chopped parsley and 1 tbsp chopped chives
- Whisked INTO the sauce rather than scattered over the plate at the end. That is what makes the coating itself green-flecked, which is how the photograph reads.
Loosened with A LITTLE pasta water until COATED BUT NOT CREAMY - the stopping point is stated as a negative, which tells you which way it is likely to go wrong. The broccoli went into the pasta water for its FINAL 2 MINUTES only, so it stays bright green and firm; and 1 1/4 lb of flank seared to charred edges and 145F, rested 3 minutes and SLICED ACROSS THE GRAIN, goes on top. Step 5 rules out cheese, soy glaze, tortellini and chilli garnish.
Success Tips
- Time the broccoli off the pasta clock rather than boiling it separately.
- Get the skillet genuinely hot; charred edges come from heat, not from time.
- Find the grain before you slice — across it, always.
Serving Ideas
Four white plates, the linguine and bright green broccoli in the yellow-green herb butter with sliced charred steak laid over the top. No cheese and no chilli.
Frequently Asked Questions
How is this different from the cowboy butter tortellini steak bites?
That one is cubed sirloin with cheese tortellini. This is sliced flank steak with broccoli over linguine, and step 5 rules out tortellini by name.
Why cook the broccoli in the pasta water?
Two minutes at the end of the pasta's boil is all it needs, and it saves a pan. Longer and it loses the bright green firm texture the dish shows.
Should I finish it with Parmesan?
No — step 5 rules out cheese, along with a soy glaze and a chilli garnish.
