Vitello Tonnato

Piedmont's cold poached veal under a tuna, anchovy, and caper sauce

Origin: Turin & Piedmont, Italy

From the journey of Caper.

Cold veal under a sauce of tuna is one of the odder combinations in European cooking and it makes complete sense once you know where Piedmont is. The region is landlocked, tucked against the Alps, and its historic access to the sea was the salt road down to Liguria and the Mediterranean. What came up that road was not fresh fish but preserved fish: salted anchovy in barrels, tuna packed in oil, and capers cured in salt. Piedmont built an entire family of dishes on those imports, of which bagna càuda is the most famous and vitello tonnato the most refined. A landlocked region put preserved tuna on veal because preserved tuna was what the sea sent it. The dish is old enough to have changed shape. Pellegrino Artusi gives it in La scienza in cucina in 1891 in a version bound without mayonnaise, thickened instead with the pounded tuna and anchovy and a good deal of oil and lemon, and many Piedmontese cooks still regard that as the correct one. The mayonnaise-based version most people now make is later and richer, and it is the one given here with the older method noted below. Capers appear twice, and both are deliberate. Some go into the sauce, where their salt and acid stop a purée of tuna, egg, and oil from becoming merely fatty; the rest are scattered over the finished plate, where they provide the sharp punctuation that a dish of this softness badly needs. Every element on the plate except the veal is preserved, and the capers are the sharpest of them. It is a summer dish and a party dish, served cold and made the day before, and it is one of the few Italian antipasti substantial enough to be a whole lunch.

Ingredients

Veal

1 kg veal girello or topside, rolled and tied

Poaching

1 whole onion, halved
1 whole carrot, halved
1 stick celery
2 whole bay leaves
6 whole black peppercorns
250 ml dry white wine
1 tsp sea salt

Sauce

200 g good tuna in olive oil, drained
5 whole salted anchovy fillets, drained
3 tbsp capers, rinsed and drained
2 whole egg yolks, at room temperature
1 tsp Dijon mustard
200 ml mild olive oil or sunflower oil
3 tbsp lemon juice
4 tbsp strained poaching liquid, cooled

To Finish

3 tbsp capers, to scatter
1 handful flat-leaf parsley leaves
1 whole lemon, cut into wedges

Method

Put the veal in a pan just large enough to hold it with the onion, carrot, celery, bay, peppercorns, wine, and salt. Add cold water to cover by 2 cm.
Bring slowly to a bare simmer, skim, and poach uncovered at the gentlest possible tremble for one hour and ten minutes, until an inserted skewer meets no resistance.
Take the pan off the heat and leave the veal to cool completely in its own liquid, then refrigerate it, still submerged, for at least eight hours and preferably overnight.
For the sauce, make a mayonnaise: whisk the egg yolks with the mustard and a tablespoon of the lemon juice, then add the oil drop by drop at first and in a thin stream once it takes, until thick.
Put the tuna, anchovies, and the 3 tbsp of capers into a processor and blend to a smooth paste, then fold this into the mayonnaise.
Loosen with the remaining lemon juice and the cooled poaching liquid, a tablespoon at a time, until the sauce is the consistency of double cream and just pourable. Taste; it should be salty and sharp, and will need no salt.
Slice the cold veal as thinly as you can manage, ideally on a slicer, and lay the slices overlapping on a large flat platter.
Spoon the sauce over so the meat is generously but not entirely covered, cover, and refrigerate for at least two hours.
Scatter with the remaining capers and the parsley leaves just before serving, and bring to the table with lemon wedges. Serve cool rather than fridge-cold.

Notes

For Artusi's older and, to many Piedmontese, better version, leave out the egg yolks and mayonnaise entirely: pound the tuna, anchovy, and capers to a paste and beat in the oil, lemon, and poaching liquid to make a looser, sharper, less rich sauce. It is closer to the nineteenth-century dish and lets the capers show more. The quality of the tuna decides the sauce. Use a good jarred tuna in olive oil, ideally ventresca; tuna in brine gives a thin, chalky result. The veal can be poached two days ahead and kept in its liquid, and the whole dish assembled the day before, which is much of why it is a standard at Italian family gatherings. Chicken or turkey breast, poached the same way, makes a perfectly good and much cheaper version. A cold roast pork loin also works. What does not work is serving any of it warm.

The Gastrographer

Name: Vitello Tonnato
Prep time: 30 min
Cook time: 1 h 15 min
Total time: 14 h
Yield: 8
Cuisine: Italy
Ingredients: 1 kg veal girello or topside, rolled and tied; 1 whole onion, halved; 1 whole carrot, halved; 1 stick celery; 2 whole bay leaves; 6 whole black peppercorns; 250 ml dry white wine; 1 tsp sea salt; 200 g good tuna in olive oil, drained; 5 whole salted anchovy fillets, drained; 3 tbsp capers, rinsed and drained; 2 whole egg yolks, at room temperature; 1 tsp Dijon mustard; 200 ml mild olive oil or sunflower oil; 3 tbsp lemon juice; 4 tbsp strained poaching liquid, cooled; 3 tbsp capers, to scatter; 1 handful flat-leaf parsley leaves; 1 whole lemon, cut into wedges

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Journey Point Map Key

Ingredient originTrade or transit route

Became a culinary stapleColonial / trade control