Vitello Tonnato

This is another typical summer cold dish, and as you might have guessed from the name (if you know some Italian...), it involves tuna, which makes it the 3rd out of the 4 last recipes. What can I say? I like my tuna in the summer!

 

Vitello Tonnato

 

-1lb veal (I'll get back in a second to discuss which cut to use)

-1 can of tuna

-olive oil

-vegetable oil

-2 eggs

-1Tbs capers

-a couple of anchovies

-lemon juice

-vinegar

-salt

-pepper

-a mix of herbs (I used Italian Seasoning)

 

So, ideally the veal should be a roast cut with few bones (e.g. leg round roast or leg rump roast), because you want to be able to slice it thin after you cooked it. Unfortunately I wasn't able to find any of that at our local supermarket, so I used shoulder blade chop, which wasn't a terribly good idea since it ended up being impossible to slice thin and I more or less just cut it into little pieces instead.

 

I guess you could substitute the veal with something else, also because veal appears to be pretty expensive in the US, the taste will be slightly different, but the main taste is given by the Salsa Tonnata anyway...

 

So, get your meat, cook it like a roast, like heat some oil in a pan and put the meat in it, cover with a lid, and add salt, pepper and herbs. Cook it on low until it's done, if it gets too dry you can add a little bit of water or cooking wine.

 

While the veal is cooking, you should prepare the Salsa Tonnata, which is kind of like a tuna mayo. So, in a food processor or blender blend two egg yolks (I actually used a whole egg and an egg yolk, the extra egg white makes the sauce a little lighter), then slowly add olive oil and vegetable oil until it gets almost to the consistency of a mayo (it's ok if it is a little more liquid than that). Then add the can of tuna (you might as well not drain the oil) the capers and the anchovies and mix everything. Once it's all mixed, add a splash of lemon juice and a couple of drops of vinegar to it (I actually didn't have any lemon juice at home and it tasted fine anyway). Salt to taste too.

 

At this point the veal should almost be done, once that's the case let it cool down then slice it as thin as you can. Put the veal slices on a serving plate and cover them with the Salsa Tonnata, if you want you can garnish it with some more capers.

 

Let it sit in the fridge for an hour, then serve and enjoy!