Word of Mouth: Carpaccio

Carpaccio, [car-PAH-chi-oh] noun: An Italian antipasto dish of very thinly sliced beef, usually served raw or cooked rare and seasoned with olive oil and salt.

This dish represents much of what we love about Italian cooking: fresh ingredients, pure flavors, and a simple presentation. Have you ever had it?

Beef carpaccio is usually made from the most tender cuts of meat. The paper-thin slices are also cut across the grain so they practically melt in your mouth. With the luscious flavor of olive oil and the bright specks of salt, this dish is unlike anything else.

We love recipes that apply this same principle to other foods, giving us carpaccio of beet and carpaccio of peach. It’s like being presented with the purest essence of that food without any other bells and whistles to distract us.

• Steak Carpaccio from Giada De Laurentiis on the Food Network
• Tuna Carpaccio with Citrus and Ginger from Food & Wine
• Zucchini Carpaccio from Epicurious
• Beet Carpaccio from Eating Well

(Image: Flickr member heathmankirkland licensed under Creative Commons)

Comments (14)

Made it last night for my reading group. I seared the outside, though, and served it with scattered watercress and a parmesan dressing. So, so, so good.

Isn't eating raw meat extremely dangerous?

Raw beef is perfectly safe if it comes from very reputable purveyors. I have enjoyed it at many restaurants, best example is at Gotham Bar and Grill in Manhattan. It is also very easy to make at home and a crowd pleaser.

I managed to get this at the one restaurant in my town that served it, just months before the place closed. Delicious!

I got tricked into eating it in Paris on a trip once. It was delicious, I'm kind of glad I was tricked b/c I probably wouldn't have tried it otherwise (although my sister ate raw beef in Japan and got very, very sick, spent a lot of time in the hospital and ended up having PTSD for years because of it).

Anyways, it was very tender, melted in my mouth. I think it was slightly "cooked" with a little lemon juice but otherwise completely raw and served with a little pesto sauce. Honestly, though, I would never eat it in North America--our food standards are just too poor here to risk it (I mean, look how often we have Listeriosis outbreaks in factories that make cooked meat for crying out loud!).

The photo looks like proscuieto and not beef.

I have never had it "seared" -- always 100% uncooked.

For anyone nervous about the safety, you just have to be sure you are in a chef-run restauarant. It is often served with capers and lemon as well.

PTSD from carpaccio food poisoning??

Sorry to hear that...strange...

FYI - the Flickr caption on the photo above says it's lamb carpaccio. Maybe that's why it looks so pink?

We make cucumber carpaccio at lot. I like to dollop a little Greek yogurt on it, then finish with lemon zest, sea salt, and olive oil. Maybe a little fresh, homemade Ricotta, if I have it on hand.

PTSD from carpaccio food poisoning??
No, it had more to do with being a young, sheltered girl in Japan without the language skills, in the hospital for weeks, weak and sick from ecoli poisoning, the host Dad was sick too and diagnosed with Encephalitis, dodgy family (Yakuza connections) attempting to abduct her from the hospital, and the exchange representative in Japan accusing her of faking and telling her that her parents don't love her(?!). So not exactly directly related but had she just refused to eat it in the first place instead of being afraid to "dishonour" her host mother, she most likely wouldn't have been in the situation (plus, she was very fragile emotionally at the time).

FYI - the Flickr caption on the photo above says it's lamb carpaccio. Maybe that's why it looks so pink?
Emma, in my brief experience with beef carpaccio, it was indeed that pink (completely raw) and they served it with a lemon wedge to squeeze over it first to semi "cook" the meat. But it was very very pink (I thought it was just cured meat like prosciutto or something).

I love carpaccio, it's so good. It's also served in Brazil.

Love carpaccio. I have it anytime I see it on the menu at a chef driven, high-end restaurant. Most recently in Chicago with capers, shaved pecorino and a basalmic reduction. So very yummy.

Carpaccio, yum! Our favorite local Japanese spot offers both a kobe carpaccio and an ahi carpaccio. The kobe is the best beef carpaccio I've ever tasted. It's garnished with a tiny fanned gherkin, shavings of parmesan and a small pile of microgreens.