A simple mixture, traditional pesto is a handful of crushed basil, pine nuts muddled with garlic and salt, and spicy olive oil. The flavors are married together with the addition of nutty, sharp parmesan cheese. This vibrant green paste, whose name literally translates to crushed or clobbered, adds a unique layer of flavor to any dish.
Pesto is commonly found dressing pasta or gnocchi, sitting atop a filet of fish, dropped in soups, or layered in a lasagna. It has also grown from being a basil and pine nut sauce to any concoction that can be thrown in a food processor, ground together, and is reminiscent of the crushed paste we call pesto.
“Too few people understand a really good sandwich.” ~James Beard
New twists on the old pesto include switching from pine nuts to walnuts, pecans, almonds, cashews, pistachios, or another nut of your personal choosing. Other substitutions can include omitting the basil and adding tarragon, spinach, arugula, swiss chard, and even beet or carrot tops! Mint could also be a fun way to switch up the flavor profile of your pesto greens.
The Avocado Basil Pesto
Ingredients for the Avocado Basil Pesto: avocado, basil, garlic, parmesan, olive oil, lemon juice, and pecans
For this pesto open faced pronghorn steak sandwich, I took the classic basil pesto combination and created a thicker, creamier avocado base. The thicker texture of the avocado pesto held the sandwich together a little better and also added a nice creaminess against the crunch sourdough bread.
I made the avocado pesto first. To a food processor, I added an entire avocado and two cups of basil. I pulsed it a few times to grind the avocado and basil up just a bit. Next, I added a clove of garlic (which I didn’t bother even cutting up because why? Let the food processor do the work for you!), two tablespoons of lemon juice, ½ cup of pecans, and 1/3 cup of grated parmesan cheese. Blend it up until you have a beautiful, lime green paste sprinkled with specks of pecans.
Finally, with the food processor running, drizzle in up to a half cup of olive oil. I drizzle slowly so I can watch the consistency of the pesto. I like it to be just a little bit chunky still, so sometimes I don’t use the entire half cup. It really depends on the type of nuts and greens you use for your pesto with how much oil you will add.
Everything Crusted Pronghorn Steak Sandwich
Now that the pesto is complete, it is time to start cooking the pronghorn steak for your sandwich. Preheat the oven to 500 degrees. Season the steak generously, like it’s your job to season and you want to get a promotion, with the Everything Bagel seasoning. If you are wondering what Everything Bagel seasoning, I will tell you, but know you are missing out if you don’t have it in your pantry right now! (Which I will admit, I didn’t have it in mine until this sandwich came along.)
Everything Bagel seasoning is just a mixture of the spices and herbs found on an Everything Bagel. They include poppy seeds, black pepper, black and white sesame seeds, dried garlic and onion, and flaky salt. I find the seasoning to be an amazing pop of salt surrounded by intense bites of the garlic and onion with a peppery finish.
I love a good everything bagel with cream cheese. The simplicity of a bagel and cream cheese surrounded by those little bites of salty intensity is one of my favorite ways to start the morning. I think I like the seasoning even better on steak!
After you have seasoned your pronghorn steak with the bagel seasoning, heat a cast iron skillet over medium high heat. Add a little olive oil to the pan, this will help to keep the seasoning from becoming stuck to the pan and ripping off from your meat when you flip.
Once the oil is hot, drop the entire piece of meat in and let it cook for three minutes. Flip and cook the other side for an additional three minutes. Finally, place the entire skillet into the oven and let finish cooking for five minutes. Pull the meat from the oven and place on a cutting board to rest for a bit.
While the meat is resting, toast the sourdough bread slices and thinly slice the tomato.
I cut the meat into thin strips for the sandwich. I wanted a texture that was hearty feeling, but also not something that I had to tear apart with my teeth and ruin all the rest of the textures in my sandwich.
In the pan that you used to cook the meat, crack the eggs and start frying. I like to fry my egg to about medium so the whites are cooked but the yolk is still runny. I like the way a cracked yolk over a sandwich almost creates its own gravy for the bread to sop up.
The typical fry time for an egg to reach medium over a medium level of heat is about five minutes. I do three minutes for the initial crack and then two minutes once I flip it. I will admit, I am not the greatest cooker of eggs. I tend to either under or over cook them, but they always taste good.
To assemble your sandwich, slather on a big heaping tablespoon of the avocado pesto to the sourdough. Place three slices of tomatoes across your pesto pool, add a greedy amount of everything bagel crusted pronghorn steak, and top with a perfectly (or in my case not so perfectly) fried egg.
And to eat, try and wrap your mouth around that entire sandwich for the first big bite. Break the egg yolk to create your egg gravy, sop it up with extra sourdough, and just enjoy this excellent pronghorn steak sandwich. I find it perfect for breakfast, lunch or dinner.
Happy Hunting!
Pronghorn Steak Sandwich with Avocado Basil Pesto
Ingredients
- 1 avocado
- 2 cups basil
- 1 clove garlic
- 2 Tablespoons lemon juice
- 1/2 cup pecans
- 1/3 cup grated parmesan
- Salt and pepper
- Sourdough Bread
- 1 pound pronghorn steak (or elk, deer, moose, etc)
- Everything bagel seasoning
- 1 Tablespoon oil
- 3 heirloom tomatoes
- 4 eggs
Instructions
- In a food processor, chop the avocado and basil until broken up
- Add full clove of garlic and pulse until chopped
- Mix in pecans, lemon juice, and parmesan cheese. Blend until mixture is like coarse salt
- With food processor running, slowly drizzle in olive oil until desired consistency is reached
- Season to taste with salt and pepper
- To cook pronghorn, preheat oven to 500 degrees.
- In a skillet able to be transferred to the oven, heat a the tablespoon of oil (I just used olive because it was already out but any cooking oil is fine) to medium high heat.
- Generously season the pronghorn steak with the Everything Bagel seasoning. Drop into hot pan and brown each side for about three minutes per side (based on about an 1 and 1/2 thick steak, decrease time if steak is thinner and increase if steak is thicker).
- Place the entire skillet into the oven for five minutes to finish cooking the pronghorn.
- Let the meat rest for 8-10 minutes before thinly slicing for sandwiches.
- Toast slices of sourdough bread.
- Generously coat one slice with the avocado basil pesto.
- Place three slices of heirloom tomato slices and then pile high with sliced pronghorn steak.
- For the fried egg: fry eggs to medium so the whites are cooked but the yolk is still runny. Typical fry time for an egg to reach medium over a medium level of heat is about five minutes (three minutes the first side, flip and two minutes the second side)
- Top the sandwich with a fried egg, slice to let the yolk run all over, and enjoy!!!