Starter · Summer
Vitello tonnato
Italian classic. Nothing to update. Cold veal, creamy tuna sauce.
Chef Sergio at Bord'eau was Italian, properly Italian, and he had no patience for vitello tonnato done badly. The Dutch versions he'd tasted in his early Amsterdam years had haunted him. He served his with the meat sliced so thin you could read a menu through it, and a tonnato so smooth it sat like a sauce should sit. Without ever sliding off the plate.
He gave me a single rule when I asked him about it: 'non lo modernizzare.' Don't modernize it. Don't add truffle oil, don't swap the tonnato for something clever, don't deconstruct it onto a slate, don't pretend the original is something to be improved upon. Make it the way someone in Piemonte made it in 1950 and you will not be embarrassed by it.
What he didn't tell me is how good fried capers are on top. That I worked out on my own, watching a girl from Liguria do it at a beach bar in Sori one August. She fried them until they bloomed open like little flowers. I have never made vitello tonnato without them since.
- Total time
- 1 h 30 min
- Serves
- 2 people
- Difficulty
- 3 / 5
- Pair with
- Soave Classico or a lightly chilled Barolo.
Ingredients
Veal
- 250 gveal eye-of-round (roasted) or lean fricandeau
- drizzleolive oil + salt + black pepper + 1 sprig rosemary
Tonnato sauce
- 1 + 1egg yolk + 1 whole egg
- 1 tspDijon mustard
- 100 gtuna in olive oil, drained
- 4anchovy fillets + 2 tbsp capers + 1 tbsp lemon juice
- 150 + 50 mlsunflower oil + olive oil
To finish
- 2 tbspcapers + frying oil + black pepper + lemon wedges
Method
- 1
Veal: rub with oil, season, oven at 130 °C. Slow-cook 45-60 minutes until core 56 °C. Cool, then chill at least 4 hours.
- 2
Tonnato: blitz yolk, whole egg, mustard, tuna, anchovies, capers and lemon juice for 20 seconds.
- 3
With the blender running low, add the oils in a thin stream until thick and glossy. Taste. Usually no extra salt.
- 4
Fry the remaining capers in hot oil until they bloom open. Drain on kitchen paper.
- 5
Slice the veal razor-thin (mandoline or sharp knife). Lay flat on a cold plate, in one layer.
- 6
Pour the tonnato over generously. Scatter the fried capers, crack of pepper, lemon wedge alongside.
