FLORENTINE ROAST

You need a good cut of roasting beef for this dish. I recommend top round roast.

Preheat oven to highest temperature. When the oven is very hot, place meat in a roasting pan with a high edge and put in the oven.
Leave to cook for about twenty minutes without opening the oven. Obviously, depending on the weight of the meat, cooking time may vary slightly.
In the meantime, chop a big handful of sage, a little rosemary, and some "Profumo di Chianti". Once the ingredients are finely chopped, mix them with a good dose of olive oil (consider two cups of olive oil per kilogram of beef.)
Remove roast from the oven, and pour over it the sauce you've just prepared.
Cover the dish (a sheet of aluminum foil will do fine), and let stand for half an hour allowing the flavours to develop.
The dish does not go back into the oven, so the seasoning remains practically raw.

This is an absolutely perfect way to enjoy red meat, all the healthier because the olive oil is not cooked in the process. What's more, the beef will keep for a few days. A lovely solution in place of the nearly passé carpaccio. And above all it is a piece of Florentine history.

Who knows what would have happened to the passion, art and the poetry of the Renaissance if there had been no red meat or Chianti? Hard to say really, but luckily for us that's not how it went!