Red wine enthusiasts know this beverage is the perfect accompaniment for roasted, or seared, red meat. But it’s fantastic for more than just drinking - you can use it in your cooking as well.

For a warm comforting meal, or a romantic supper for two, rustle up this delicious French red wine sauce. It's perfect served with your favourite steak - or any other cooked red meat. It is super-easy to make. In total, the sauce will take around five minutes to prepare, and between 10 and 20 minutes to cook.

Ingredients

• 250g shallots,
• 4 tablespoons of olive oil,
• 1 garlic clove,
• Sprig of rosemary (and/or thyme),
• Salt and fresh ground black pepper,
• 5 tablespoons of good balsamic vinegar,
• 400ml of French red wine,
• 400ml of stock - beef or chicken - homemade if possible,
• Knob of butter.

Method

1. Season your steaks and cook them in oil, or in a nonstick frying pan according to how you like them. If you like your steak rare, you should cook for around two minutes. This extends to 4 minutes each side for medium, and 6 minutes each side if you prefer your steak to be well done.
2. Heat the olive oil in a saucepan and cook the shallots until they are golden brown. Lightly crush one clove of garlic and add this to the shallots. Add some black pepper and a sprig of rosemary. Don't worry too much about the garlic and rosemary. You'll remove these from your sauce when you have got all the flavour from them.
3. Cook for about three minutes, stirring often.
4. Pour the vinegar into the pan and continue to cook until the vinegar has evaporated and you're left with a syrup consistency. Then, add the wine and cook until you have about one-third of the original quantity remaining.
5. Next, add the stock and bring your sauce to the boil.
6. Simmer on a low heat until, once again, you have about one-third of the original quantity left in your saucepan. Take out the crushed garlic clove and rosemary and then season the sauce with a little salt.
7. Finally, whisk a knob of butter into your sauce. Just before you serve, stir in any juices that came from the meat, for even more taste and quality.

You can also add mushrooms to your sauce if you like. Cut about 140 g of mushrooms into quarters, and fry them with the shallots.

Serve your steak, along with the sauce, with creamy mashed potato and crunchy spring greens for the perfect supper.