If you’re entertaining in the summer months, you want a dish that is easy to prepare but will impress your guests with its delicious flavours. This recipe for tuna steaks with an Italian honey and pine nut sauce does just that. It comes from a cookbook called: Recipes for an Italian Summer (pub. Phaidon £24.95, photographs by Joel Meyerowitz and Andy Sewell) and appears here with permission. Millefiori (‘thousand-flower’) honey is produced from many different flowers, which can change from year to year and from region to region. Consequently, each millefiori honey has a different flavour and aroma.
Tuna Tagliata with Potatoes and Honey Sauce - Recipe
Tagliata di tonno con patatine e salsa al miele
Ingredients - Serves 6
- 6 × 200 -g/7 -oz tuna steaks
- 3 – 4 lemon myrtle leaves
- 1 clove garlic, sliced
- 6 tablespoons olive oil, plus extra for drizzling
- 24 new potatoes
- salt and pepper
For the sauce:
- 200 ml/7 fl oz white-wine vinegar
- 4 – 5 tablespoons millefiori honey
- 4 tomatoes, peeled, de-seeded and diced
- 1 tablespoon chopped flat-leaf parsley
- 1 tablespoon snipped chives
- olive oil, for drizzling
- 2 tablespoons pine nuts, toasted
- salt and pepper
Method
- First make the sauce. Bring the vinegar to the boil in a small pan and cook until reduced by a quarter. Stir in 4 tablespoons of the honey and taste. Add more honey if necessary. Remove the pan from the heat and leave to cool.
- Put the tomatoes into a bowl, sprinkle with a little salt, a pinch of pepper, the parsley and chives. Stir the cooled vinegar mixture into the tomatoes, then add the oil and pine nuts. Taste and season with salt and pepper, if necessary, and leave to stand.
- Preheat the oven to 200°C/400°F/Gas Mark 6. Season the tuna steaks with salt and pepper and put them into a shallow dish. Add the myrtle leaves and garlic slices, drizzle with oil and leave to marinate for 10 minutes.
- Heat 3 tablespoons of the oil in a shallow pan, add the tuna and cook over a medium-high heat for 2 minutes on each side, or until the steaks are seared. Transfer them to an ovenproof dish and roast for 10 minutes. Remove from the oven and leave to stand in a warm place for 10 minutes.
- Meanwhile, parboil the potatoes in a pan of salted boiling water for 10 minutes, then drain. Heat the remaining 3 tablespoons of oil in a frying pan, add the potatoes and cook over low heat, shaking the pan occasionally, for 10 –15 minutes, until they are tender.
- Transfer the tuna to a serving dish, arrange the potatoes around it and pour the sauce over the dish.
Rebecca Ford - I'm a UK based freelance travel writer and photographer - and the country I most like to visit is Italy. That's not just because of the ...
