Some of the best sauces for grilled, broiled or sautéed steak are based on Sauce Espagnole, which can be made in quantity and keeps well. You can produce a satisfactory Sauce Espagnole by short-cutting the classic, lengthy method. However, if you have the time, the classic method (epi:recipeLink="101872"Classic Sauce Espagnole</epi:recipeLink>)yields a finer and more flavorful result.

Ingredients

　　2 tablespoons butter

　　1 onion, very finely chopped

　　1 bay leaf

　　1/4 teaspoon dried thyme

　　2 tablespoons flour

　　1/4 cup white wine

　　1 1/2 cups rich stock, boiling

　　1/4 cup meat glaze

　　3/4 pound ripe tomatoes, peeled, quartered and seeded, or 3 tablespoons tomato paste

　　Salt, pepper to taste

　　Cook lard and butter together over medium heat for 5 minutes. Add onion, bay leaf and thyme, cook till onion browns. With slotted spoon, remove onion and bay leaf. Reduce heat, sprinkle in flour, cook for 2 minutes, stirring well. Add wine. Raise heat and stirring with a sauce whisk, slowly add boiling stock. Add meat glaze. Now, depending how hurried you are, either add the peeled and seeded tomatoes and boil hard till tomatoes are liquified and entire sauce is reduced to 1 1/4 cups, or, more quickly, boil sauce hard until reduced to 1 1/4 cups and then dissolve tomato paste in a small quantity of hot sauce and add to rest of sauce. (Using tomato paste, the entire sauce takes about 1/2 hour.) Add salt and fresh pepper to taste. Allow 2 or 3 tablespoons of sauce per serving.