One of my favorite and unique steak dinners of all time was at this restaurant called Acqua Al 2, in Florence, Italy. Acqua Al 2 is known for its many cuts of beef, specifically their balsamic and blueberry glazed filet mignon.

Luckily I was able to try both famous variations in a single dish. I ordered two petite filets, one covered in a thick balsamic-heavy red wine sauce and the other, a sweeter blueberry reduction. At first, I was really skeptical. Blueberry on steak? It sounds mismatched, but it actually complements the salty steak beautifully. In fact, covering your filet in a sweeter sauce actually seems to bring out the filet’s flavor more in contrast.

After some trial and error, I’ve come up with my own rendition of both steaks. You can find the balsamic variation here if you’re curious. You could very easily replicate the entire dish by preparing two separate reductions.

How to Make a Blueberry Reduction

The blueberry glaze consists of freshly mashed blueberries (I use a potato masher), red wine (Chianti of course), brown sugar, garlic, salt, and pepper. The red wine is really needed to give the sauce better consistency.

You’d have a really difficult time reducing the blueberries without a base liquid’s help. I’ve tried with balsamic vinaigrette, but it tends to overpower the blueberries—Chianti is the perfect happy medium.

Bring blueberries, wine, garlic, rosemary, and brown sugar to a simmer and let reduce by half until thickened. Once you remove the sauce from the heat, it will continue to thicken. You want a nice thick sauce on top of the filet.

It’s a beautiful sweet and savory sensation.

Steak Temp and Timing

Sear filets 2 minutes per side on the stovetop in a cast iron skillet on high heat with real butter or oil and then immediately transfer to a preheated oven at 415° F. I typically bake filets for about 5-6 minutes for medium-rare. That’s the beauty of cast iron, you can easily transfer from stovetop to oven. If you don’t have one, I highly recommend picking one up.

Carefully timing your cook time for steak always yields consistent results. It may sound like overkill, but I use my phone to time each side on the skillet and then in the oven. If you really adhere to cook times I promise you will never overcook a steak again.

Doneness	Temperature Range	Oven Duration
Very Rare/rare	120° F to 125° F	4 minutes
Medium rare	125° F to 130° F	5-6 minutes
Medium	135° F to 140° F	6-7 minutes
Medium well	145° F to 150° F	8-9 minutes
Well done	160° F and above	10+ minutes

Note: Cooking steaks at high temps in a skillet tends to get smokey. Open a kitchen window and turn on your kitchen’s overhead vent fan before you start to help with ventilation.

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