Fillet Wellington: gourmet dish

The Wellington fillet: English precision and elegance in the kitchen

The recipe for fillet Wellington, aka Beef Wellington, comes to us from neighboring England. It is a single dish based on first choice beef fillet wrapped in a very crunchy pastry, typically prepared for festive occasions such as Christmas or New Year's Eve. It is not a very easy or quick dish to prepare, especially the first few times, but after a little practice we assure you that the result will be amazing.

The difficulty in preparing the Wellington fillet recipe is strengthened by the caliber of the chef who recently decided to bring it back into the limelight and present his personal version: Gordon Ramsay, so pay attention to manual skills and technique. The original recipe requires that the meat be accompanied by a reduction of red wine or the typical English gravy sauce, but we can easily settle for the good sauce that will be released by the meat during cooking or we can accompany it with raw or sautéed vegetables and a sauce to taste.

Another focal point are the few but calibrated ingredients: top quality beef fillet, because other cuts of meat could release too many juices or - on the contrary - be too dry, thyme, an egg and Parma Ham (ours is also a Parma ham DOP without antibiotics ). Remember not to remove, change or add other ingredients or the dish may fail regardless of your skill. In short, the fundamental points for the success of this delight are few but very important; it requires a minimum of manual skill, a good knowledge of the cooking times of the meat (to avoid cooking the fillet too much or too little) and precision when wrapping the meat in the puff pastry. Let's see how to prepare beef fillet Wellington.

Ingredients for Beef Wellington

• 500 g of beef fillet
• 250 grams of mushrooms
• 250 grams of rectangular puff pastry
• 5 slices of Parma ham
• 1 fresh egg yolk
• thyme, salt and pepper to taste
• mustard to taste
• extra virgin olive oil to taste

Preparation of beef wellington

Start by seasoning the meat with salt and pepper and searing it for a few seconds in the pan, so that it is rare, with a few drops of extra virgin olive oil. Remove it from the pan and let it rest so that the juices remain inside.

In the meantime, clean and finely chop the mushrooms and cook them immediately in the same pan as the fillet with oil, salt, pepper and fresh thyme. Cook the mushrooms until all the liquid they have released has evaporated: remove from the heat and let cool. Now, unroll the puff pastry, place a layer of cling film and place the slices of Parma Ham DOP creating a sort of lattice, delicately spread the mushrooms trying to cover the entire surface of the Parma Ham.

Let's take our fillet, add salt and pepper and cover it with mustard, quantity to taste, and now place it in the center of the ham and mushroom lattice. Using cling film, wrap the fillet with our lattice, seal tightly and leave to rest at room temperature for at least 20 minutes.

In the meantime, take the egg yolk and shovel the surface of the puff pastry, in this way we will have a nice golden crust (this step is optional). Now remove the film from the fillet, all the ingredients should have compacted, and wrap it with the puff pastry. Cover again and let everything rest in the refrigerator for a minimum of 30 minutes.

Now bake at 200° C (ventilated oven) or 220° (static oven) for about 15-20 minutes. We will immediately notice when it is ready because the pastry will become beautifully golden. In the meantime, we can create a classic English sauce or take the cooking juices and reduce it slightly. Remove from the oven, let it rest for 5 minutes and finally slice and serve: if the recipe is successful we will hear a resounding "yes, chef!".