Vitello Tonnato (Veal with Tuna Sauce)
Vitello tonnato is one of the Italian signature dishes, usually served as a starter, and is quite, quite delicious. If you really like it, serve it as a main course with maybe a bean and tomato salad.
Ingredients
- 1 piece of fillet of veal
- 2 bay leaves
- 1 bouquet garni of mixed herbs
- 1 jar (400 grams) mayonnaise (it's not worth making your own for this one)
- 1 tin (200 grams) good quality tuna in olive oil
- 1 lemon, juiced
- Pepper
- Salt
- 1 small jar of single cream (in reserve)
Ingredients for 7 servings (1 kg) · the original recipe
Method
- 1
Simmer the veal for about 15 minutes in water with the bay leaves and bouquet garni.
Stovetop - 2
Remove from the water once cooked, wrap it in either clingfilm or aluminium foil, and place in the fridge for 3 hours until quite cool, or preferably overnight. It is important you don't try to do this whilst the veal is even slightly warm as it will mess up the sauce.
- 3
Turn the mayonnaise and the tin of tuna into a blender and blend until it is a smooth paste
Blender - 4
Add the juice of the lemon, a large pinch of pepper, and a normal pinch of salt, and blend again. The sauce should not be runny, but neither should it be too stiff. So that it becomes a pourable consistency, add a few spoonfuls of the cream.
- 5
Now take the cooked veal out of its wrapping and using a sharp knife slice as thin as you can possibly make them and arrange on a large serving dish. If you have a mallet, cover the slices of veal in foil and bash away at them until they are as thin as possible!
- 6
Take the sauce and pour it over the veal so that the veal becomes completely covered in the sauce. Not too thick, not too thin.
- 7
Decorate with capers. Grind some red pepper over the top (optional) and it is ready to serve.
Recipe from Wikibooks Cookbook, written by Wikibooks contributors. Used under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence; the ingredient list and method on this page are taken from that page and edited (its notes, tips and variations are not reproduced), and are available under the same licence. The macros, equipment tags and scaling are Ma Kitchen’s own and are not the source’s figures. Ma Kitchen is not affiliated with or endorsed by Wikibooks Cookbook. Copied on 2026-11-12.
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