Tomato Tomatoe

tonnato

The first time I tried tonnato was at a farm to table restaurant and it was served with fresh summer heirloom tomatoes and basil oil. The simplicity and brightness of the tonnato sauce blew me away and I knew that I needed to make it at home. Fast forward a year later and I receive a gorgeous cookbook called Old World Italian and in the book there is a recipe for tonnato. This was my sign to make it.

If you haven’t heard of tonnato, it’s a creamy sauce made from tuna, anchovy, garlic, lemon, capers and olive oil. It’s from the Piedmont region in Italy and it’s traditionally served over thinly sliced veal. The sauce uses minimal ingredients which is what Italian cooking is all about. As this sauce requires minimal ingredients, it’s important to use the best high quality ingredients you can find. For this recipe you want to use a good quality tuna packed in olive oil and a good quality extra virgin olive oil. If you can’t find this type of tuna at the grocery store, you can typically find it at an Italian speciality store and the jars cost around $8-10. I thought that the tonnato would pair perfectly over hearty leafy greens. I used Tuscan kale, endive and radicchio. The sauce worked perfectly on the greens and it was a delicious hearty and balanced salad.

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tonnato

Ingredients

Tonnato

• 1 jar of good quality tuna packed in olive oil
• 3-4 anchovy filets
• juice from 1 lemon
• 3 tbsp capers
• 1 egg yolk
• 1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil
• Salt and pepper to taste

Salad

• 2 cups Tuscan kale, torn
• 3 cups endive, chopped
• 1/4 cup radicchio, sliced thin
• 1 cup crushed sourdough breadcrumbs
• 1/2 cup freshly grated Parmigiano Reggiano
• Zest from one lemon
• 3 tbsp white wine vinegar
• 4-6 tbsp olive oil

Directions

1. To make the tonnato, add all of the ingredients in a food processor except for the olive oil. Blend until smooth. Slowly pour in the olive oil until the sauce emulsifies.
2. To make the sourdough breadcrumbs, take 4 large pieces of sourdough and cut into small pieces. Place on a baking sheet and drizzle with olive oil and season with salt and pepper. Toss the bread to ensure that each piece is coated in olive oil. Bake in the oven at 425 degrees F for 15 minutes. Flip halfway through and bake until golden. Remove from the oven and let cool. Place in a resealable bag and crush the croutons with a meat tenderizer. Set breadcrumbs aside.
3. Add the greens to a large bowl and add 5-6 tbsp of the tonnato sauce. Add white wine vinegar and olive oil. Toss and coat the greens in the sauce. Season with salt and pepper to taste. Add 4-5 heaping spoons of the tonnato sauce onto a large serving platter. Arrange the lettuce over the sauce and top with freshly grated lemon zest, Parmigiano Reggiano and breadcrumbs.