Vitello Tonnato

Piedmontese Cold Veal with Tuna Sauce

Veal and tuna sound like an accident. In fact the sauce, smooth and savoury with anchovy and capers, is exactly what mild, cold, thinly sliced veal needs. It is a summer starter in Piedmont and a fixture of Christmas tables across the north.

The Italian recipe read marinates a piece of veal round for 12 hours in white wine with vegetables and spices, then poaches it for about 45 minutes, keeping the centre at no more than 65°C so that it stays pink. The sauce is tuna, anchovy, capers and hard-boiled egg blended with some of the cooking liquid until a little thinner than mayonnaise. The meat is chilled before slicing.

Ingredients

For the veal

  • 800 g rose veal topside or silverside, in one neat piece
  • 500 ml dry white wine
  • 1 carrot, 1 celery stick and 1 small onion, roughly chopped
  • 2 bay leaves
  • 4 cloves
  • 6 black peppercorns
  • Fine sea salt

For the sauce

  • 100 g tuna in olive oil, drained
  • 3 anchovy fillets in oil
  • 1 tsp capers in vinegar, drained, plus extra to serve
  • 2 eggs, hard-boiled for 10 minutes and peeled
  • About 100 ml of the cooled cooking liquid

Method

  1. Marinate Put the veal in a non-metallic bowl with the wine, vegetables, bay, cloves and peppercorns. Cover and refrigerate for 12 hours.
  2. Poach Tip the meat and its marinade into a saucepan in which it fits snugly. Add cold water to cover and 1 tsp salt. Bring slowly to a bare simmer and cook very gently for 40 to 45 minutes, until a thermometer in the centre reads 63 to 65°C.
  3. Cool Take the pan off the heat and let the veal cool in its liquid for 30 minutes. Lift it out, wrap it and chill for at least 3 hours. Strain and keep the liquid.
  4. Make the sauce Blend the tuna, anchovies, capers and hard-boiled eggs with 100 ml of the cooking liquid until completely smooth. It should be a little thinner than mayonnaise; add more liquid a spoonful at a time if needed. Taste for salt.
  5. Serve Slice the cold veal as thinly as you can and lay the slices on a platter. Spoon the sauce over so that it nearly covers the meat and scatter with a few capers.

Food safety

The veal is cooked pink, to 63 to 65°C at the centre, as a whole piece. Keep it refrigerated and eat within 2 days. Pregnant women and others advised to avoid pink meat should cook it to 70°C.

Chill the meat thoroughly. Warm veal will not slice thinly.

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