Call me a meat and potatoes kind of guy and I will say that at least for today, you are absolutely right. I won't lie. The spinach and cheese blend in the beef seared at high heat brings forth a delicious taste that, along with a perfect wine, is simply scrumptious. If you are prone to cringe at making such a feast, fear not. This Steak a la Florentine is really simple. All you really have to concern yourself with is two basic principles for this dish. You must, must turn your heating element on to maximum heat. Got gas, crank it up. Electric? No problem. Put it on high. And leave it there. For a good minute or two. Move the kids away, put your cast iron or steel pan over the heat and leave it there. You want it smoking hot. And open the windows. And the range hood for maximum ventilation because your smoke detectors are going to scream. Toss in a good 1/4 cup of butter or more, and rest assured your butter will turn brown instantly. But that is okay. Why not? Lay your beef on it's side and leave it there for a couple minutes. Turn, repeat and repeat again until all your sides (are there sides to a round hunk of meat?) are nice and cosy cooked. You do not want to overdo this though. Don't, I repeat, don't burn it. Yuck. And then... Well, you can either put your seared meat on the BBQ or broil it. By now the cheese is starting to ooze out of the top and the spinach is turning a nice moderate moist veggie ready to devour. Oh, the second thing that I mentioned that you ought to do for this dish is to tie string around your perfectly round fillet to hold it all together. You want to use a natural string of cotton or linen called butcher's string so that this will not burn while you are cooking (and you don't want to ruin the flavor of this Steak a la Florentine beef). You can't use your kid's craft string. Well, I suppose you could. But it will burn up in a puff of flame, or something! Also, you want to tie the string just enough to hold the shape and not too tight because you want the juices to not be squeezed from the steak. Juices good, tight string not so much. Oh, and don't forget that your steak loves to be stroked with the butter. It makes it nice and tender. Yum! Them veggies though! I could write a whole post on just the veggies. Be generous with olive or veggie oil, throw on some red, yellow and if you want, green peppers, sliced onion (red onion sliced looks way cool on your plate once cooked), cherry tomatoes (this is an absolute must!!!) and roasting potatoes - the little round ones. Multi color is great for this. Load it all up with some choice dried basil and oregano and be generous with the pepper. Put it in the oven and when it comes out ready - SUPER + YUM!!!

Florentine Cheese Filet Steak