Veal with tuna sauce

A traditional and always tasty appetizer: here are some tips on how to prepare veal with tuna sauce.

Vitello tonnato, also known as Vitel Tonné, is a tasty appetizer that is made using a lean cut (of beef or veal) from which slices are then cut and covered in tuna sauce. Its origin is Piedmontese , but today this dish is spread practically throughout Italy, and depending on the region the denomination of the cut used changes: in Lombardy that cut of meat is the magatello, in the South it is lacerto, in the rest of Italy it is the walker. The choice of meat is very important, otherwise you will end up with a dish that is quite simple to prepare!

The most complicated part, if we want, is precisely that of making a perfect sauce for veal with tuna sauce: there are many variations, but today we will make one trying to stay close to tradition , and without using mayonnaise. You will see, following our steps it will be very simple!

How to make veal with tuna sauce without mayonnaise

1. Clean the celery, carrot and onion, then put all the vegetables together with the garlic and 1 bay leaf in a pot.
2. Cover with water and wine, add salt and pepper and bring to the boil . Only at this point lower the meat and start cooking. Allow 40 minutes after it starts boiling again and from time to time, during cooking, remove the foam that forms on the surface. Once the walker is ready, let it cool.
3. Let's move on to the tuna sauce recipe: cook the eggs until they are hard-boiled ( 9 minutes from boiling in a saucepan) and then in a bowl mix the eggs with capers, anchovies and tuna. Adjust the consistency of the sauce with water or, even better, with the meat broth. You can blend everything with the immersion blender or do everything with a fork for a more rustic (and close to traditional) result.
4. Once cooked and cooled , cut the meat into thin slices. Place it in a baking dish and cover it with the tuna sauce. Garnish with capers, olives or parsley according to your taste.
5. Store in the refrigerator covered with cling film until ready to serve. We advise you to let it rest for a few hours so that all the flavors blend.

Here is a nice video where all the steps to make the recipe are illustrated, including the old-fashioned tuna sauce.

The golden rules for a perfect dish

1. Quality and choice of cut

It seems obvious, but it is essential to choose a high quality raw material. Regarding the cutting of meat, we recommend the silverside, the tondino or the magatello. Ask your trusted butcher: he will surely be able to advise you on the best. If you want, you can also make an excellent turkey with tuna sauce , lighter as well as cheaper.

2. Cooking the meat

For absolute perfection, the meat should be added as soon as the broth boils. This will ensure that it is much softer , and is a fundamental rule for the success of the dish. In fact, meat is usually added cold only to prepare the classic meat broth because it will release the flavors more.

3. The right aromas

The legendary Pellegrino Artusi suggested flavoring the broth with cloves, a bay leaf and then celery, carrot and a sprig of parsley: let's follow the advice!

4. The perfect sauce

There are two schools of thought regarding the veal tuna sauce: there are those who prepare it with a mayonnaise base, and those who prepare it with crumbled hard-boiled eggs . In the first case, we recommend using fresh mayonnaise , i.e. homemade with eggs and sunflower seed oil. Once prepared, it will then be blended with anchovies, capers and tuna.

If, however, you don't feel like making mayonnaise and want to make things simpler, just boil the eggs, then crumble them and blend them with tuna, anchovies and capers, just as tradition dictates.

5. Slice the meat evenly

The veal, now cooked, must be sliced ​​very carefully, avoiding using serrated knives which would result in wavy slices like chips! Instead the slice must be smooth and very thin , in order to be appreciated at its best. If you have one you can use the slicer: they will be cut to perfection and all of the same thickness.

storage

The vitello tonnato can be kept in the refrigerator for up to 3 days as long as it is well covered in cling film. It therefore lends itself to being prepared in advance while it is not suitable for freezing.

Origin and history of vitello tonnato

Vitello tonnato is a dish that tastes of times gone by , especially if like many you insist on calling it vitel tonné in the French way without having any idea that veal, in French, would be veau . But where does this confusion of terms come from, given that the primordial version of the dish didn't even have tuna?

Vitello tonnato appears to have originated in Piedmont , to be precise in the Cuneo area, in the 18th century but Lombardy and Veneto also claim its paternity. At that time, Cuneo was part of the Duchy of Savoy where French and Italian were the official languages ​​but everyone, including sovereigns, spoke a dialect that combined the two languages.

It was born from the need to recycle leftover veal and therefore, although today it is considered a refined dish, it actually has humble origins. It seems that the term tonné derives from the French tanné , meaning tanned. In fact, in Burnet's 1836 French cookbook Dictionnaire de cuisine et d'économie ménagère we find the “Way to give veal the appearance of marinated tuna” .

The "modern" or almost "modern" recipe for vitello tonnato was born from the pen of Pellegrino Artusi who introduced tuna for the first time in his book "Science in the kitchen and the art of eating well" . We are in 1891 and there is still no trace of mayonnaise. For that we have to wait until 1950, the year of publication of “The Silver Spoon” .