You Say Tomato, I Say Tonnato
Because Tonnato Sauce Is the Best Condiment You’ve Never Tasted
The Piedmont region of Italy has a classic dish called vitello tonnato: a cold appetizer of very thinly sliced veal (vitello), topped with a creamy emulsion of tuna, anchovy, capers, lemon, olive oil and egg yolks (tonnato). At some point in the mid-20th century, this dish was the height of fashion for Italian restaurants in America, but its star quickly dimmed once eating veal stopped being socially acceptable here.
Before I’d eaten real vitello tonnato in Piedmont, I didn’t think this was much of a blow to America’s culinary scene. Cold boiled veal with tuna sauce? It sounds awful. And the often greyish-beige color doesn’t entice me, either. But here’s the thing – vitello tonnato is closed-eyes, moan-inducing DELICIOUS. And the reason it’s so good has everything to do with the tonnato sauce.
I had my first vitello tonnato experience in Bra, Italy (headquarters of Slow Food International) and came home lovestruck.
The Piemontese classic in its full beige glory, as prepared by Chef Christian Mandura at the 2016 Slow Food conference.
Vitello tonnato from Osteria La Boccabuona in Bra. You never forget your first time.
So I threw a few pantry staples in a food processor, tinkered with the seasoning ‘til I had it right, and served it up with rare roast beef, some arugula and cherry tomatoes for color. BLISS.
Home experiments confirmed that briny, umami-rich tonnato sauce is dynamite not only with beef, but also with bitter greens, tomatoes, and (spoiler alert!) every vegetable on earth. Asparagus tonnato. Roasted broccoli with tonnato. Roasted cauliflower with tonnato. Tomato tonnato. Smoked duck breast with tonnato. It always seems to work.
My appreciation for this sauce has only grown in 2020’s pandemic times – it’s fast, easy, and made almost entirely of stuff you already have in your pantry.
Tonnato sauce transforms an astonishing range of ho-hum foods into exciting, delectable treats. It gives a shot in the arm to tomato bruschetta or caprese salads (or leftover pizza!). It makes overcooked hard-boiled egg halves something you can’t wait to snarf down. A sad handful of greens and sliced tomatoes becomes instant salade niçoise when you drizzle a little over the top.
Spread tonnato sauce on a cracker with grilled peppers and a piece of cured chorizo, and you’ve got a delectable pintxo straight out of San Sebastián. With a little pot of room temperature tonnato sauce to dip them in, raw or roasted veggies become a Provençal platter of crudités – crying out for a glass of cool rosé wine.
Tonnato sauce (in the bowl at top) made with store-bought mayonnaise, hence its pallor. If you use homemade mayo, it’ll be more golden, like the version I had in Bra.
As much as I love putting tonnato sauce on tomatoes (and saying “tomato tonnato”), it actually subs in really well for a lot of tomato-based sauces. It’s fabulous with fennel meatballs and Catalan spinach truita, for example. I haven’t tried it as a pasta sauce yet, but I know it’s going to be a winner with spaghetti – all it needs is a handful of raisins and toasted pine nuts to make you think you’re sheltering somewhere off the coast of Sicily.
And then, of course, there’s tonnato sauce as sandwich spread. Picture it on your next BLT, burger, lamburger, or even a sprouts & avocado hippie sandwich. Bring it back to basics with a warm panino of deli roast beef, arugula, and tomato slathered in tonnato sauce.
No matter how you serve it, though, always keep a little extra tonnato sauce on the side for dipping. It will never go to waste.
There are links in the recipe below to products I recommend. As an Amazon Associate, I may earn a commission (at no additional expense to you) from qualifying purchases.
Roast beef “vitello” with tonnato sauce, Sweet 100 tomatoes, purslane, and some homemade socca. Nice is just over the border from Piemonte, after all.
Tonnato Sauce
Makes about 1 cup
No need to splurge on fancy tuna here, unless you want to. The albacore tuna in olive oil from Trader Joe’s is my go-to for this recipe.
5 anchovy fillets in oil, drained (15g)
3 Tbsp fresh lemon juice
2 scant Tbsp capers
1 5-ounce/144g can albacore tuna in olive oil, with the oil (you want 4 oz tuna, 1 oz oil)
¼ cup mayonnaise
¼ cup extra virgin olive oil
1 Tbsp dijon mustard
freshly ground pepper
Prep the Ingredients
Drain the anchovy fillets, and chop them crosswise to create a coarse paste. Juice your lemon and measure out 3 tablespoons of juice. Rinse and drain the capers.
Blend until Smooth
Put all of the ingredients into a food processor, and blend until everything is totally pulverized. Scrape down the sides a few times to make sure you don’t miss any chunks. Taste the sauce, and adjust seasoning if needed.
The End.
In a clean, airtight jar, this sauce will keep a good week in the fridge – but that’ll only happen if you forget you have it in there. Just add a few drops of lemon juice to brighten it up again as the week wears on.
