What We’re Cooking This Week: Tonnato

Jim Dixon wrote about food for WW for more than 20 years, but these days most of his time is spent at his olive oil-focused specialty food business Wellspent Market. Jim’s always loved to eat, and he encourages his customers to cook by sending them recipes every week through his newsletter. We’re happy to have him back creating some special dishes just for WW readers.

Italians, especially in the north, eat vitello tonnato during the hot days of Ferragosto, the Aug. 15 holiday that they manage to stretch into an entire month. It’s perfect summer food, thin slices of cold veal (vitello) topped with a tangy mayo called tonnato that’s flavored with tuna, anchovies, capers and lemon. While considered a classic, vitello tonnato as we know it today is relatively modern, largely inspired by the introduction of mayo in a jar during the 1950s.

Not even the Italians agree on tonnato’s origins. Some think it comes from a trend in the 1800s to make veal seem like tuna by salting it before boiling until tender, then packing the cooked meat in olive oil so it resembled newly trendy canned tuna. It’s called vitel tonné in the dialect of Piemonte, one of the regions that claims to have invented it, and though tonné may have come to mean tuna, the word derived from the French for tanned or cured.

This tangled origin story, while interesting, doesn’t matter when it comes to flavor, and that’s what tonnato is all about. Briny, creamy and packed with umami, modern tonnato makes everything it touches even more delicious. You can get close to the original with cold slices of roast pork loin, and the combination is so tasty you’ll understand why vitello tonnato is a classic. But it’s just as good dolloped on grilled vegetables, slathered onto a sandwich, or tossed with lettuce to make a supercharged Caesar.

Recipe

1 3–4-ounce can tuna packed in olive oil*

4–6 anchovies

3 cloves garlic

1 tablespoon capers, preferably salt-packed

Zest and juice from 1 lemon

¼ cup extra virgin olive oil

½ cup mayonnaise

*Or use fresh albacore poached in olive oil.

If you’ve got salt-packed capers, soak them in cold water for 10 minutes, then drain. Combine all of the ingredients in a food processor or blender, and blitz until smooth.