Florence Remembered

Bistecca ala Fiorentina
When we traveled in Italy, one of our stops was Florence.  They are known in that region for cooking meats and the Florentine steak.  You buy the meat by weight, not by cut, and they cook it in a large brick oven, all fired up with wood from the surrounding hills.  It was good, but nothing compared to the steak recipe we found from  Lydia Bastianich (which I won't tell you).
We were greatly anticipating this meal yesterday.  It is without a doubt one of the best meals we ever make and love to make it for our meat-loving guests. John prepared the grill early and I went to work on finding a suitable recipe for the accompanying kabocha squash.
We decided to pair this meal with the superb pinot noir from the Sonoma Valley vineyard of the August Briggs winery that we picked up Thursday in Calistoga.  I mention the location of the vineyards because, while we were visiting the tasting room, we sampled three different pinots, all grown in different areas and you could actually taste the difference in the wines.  This was a new experience for me, as I usually buy my wines from Trader Joe's and look at the price, not the region.
Our dinner consisted of our fabulous Florentine-style porterhouse steak,  a salad I made of greens, pistachios, Kalamata black olives and a dressing I created from the tangerines we had laying around, olive oil, salt and fresh ground pepper and a pinch of white balsamic vinegar.  It was tasty, but the star is the grilled steak!  One secret I will spill: fresh rosemary plays a big part.
Kabocha squash, we discovered is a very meaty squash.  I think it would be best served alone or with something lighter than a steak. I just had a thought: if we have a guest who is vegetarian or not into slices of rare, delcicious steak, we could fix up this squash.
You cook, you learn.