A typical Piedmontese dish that is by no means Roman but has accompanied my entire childhood.
As a child I ate it so many times that for years I refused it for too much consumption.
My mother is a master at making veal with tuna sauce; she fills it with sauce, and when I was little, she made it a huge portion that we consumed for a couple of days until exhaustion.
Vitello tonnato: veal with tuna sauce
- Preparation time: 180 minutes
- Ingredients for 4-6 servings
- Difficulty: Average difficulty recipe
- Ingredients
- 700 gr or 1 lb 8 oz of veal silverside
- 1 celery stalk
- 1 carrot
- 1 onion
- 2 US quart of hot water
- Black pepper to taste
- ½ glass of white wine
- Extra virgin olive oil to taste
- Salt to taste
- For the sauce:
- 220 ml or 16 tablespoons of mayonnaise
- 250 gr or 9 oz of tuna in oil
- 3 anchovies in oil
- 1 handful of salted capers
- Instructions
- Wash the vegetables and cut them into large pieces.
- Brown the meat in a pan with a little oil.
- Blend with the wine, and when the alcohol has evaporated, add the onion, celery, and carrot. Cover with the water and add the peppercorns. Cook for at least twenty minutes over a low heat. Add a little salt.
- When cooked, remove the meat from the pan and let it cool. Cut it very thin and set the cooking broth aside.
- Meanwhile, prepare the sauce. In a mixer put the mayonnaise, anchovies in oil, the capers, and the private tuna oil. Combine a little broth from the meat and turn on the mixer.
- In a serving dish, put the veal slices and sprinkle with sauce.
- Leave to rest in the fridge for at least two hours.
- Garnish with other capers and lemon slices.
Tips to ensure the success of the dish:
- Tie the veal with string before cooking to keep it in shape.
- Cook over low heat to prevent the meat from drying up.
- If you don’t want to make mayonnaise, you can buy a commercial version. It will be less tasty but it will last many more days. To make your own homemade mayonnaise, check out the recipe here.
Mamma in her beloved Villa d’Este in Tivoli
