Tuna Livornese
Gusto NYC's Update On a Tuscan Classic
Dec. 6, 2007— -- Amanda Freitag, executive chef at New York City's Gusto restaurant, showed ABC News contributor Brooke Parkhurst how to make a sumptuous Tuscan-style tuna at the James Beard Foundation.
Tuna Livornese
Ingredients:
½ cup extra-virgin olive oil, divided
8 cippolini onions, thinly sliced
3 garlic cloves, sliced
4 fresh plum tomatoes, cut into wedges
½ cup water
¼ cup black olives, pitted
2 tablespoons capers
2 tablespoons chopped fresh parsley
4 six-ounce tuna steaks, about 2 inches thick
Salt and freshly ground pepper
Method:
Heat ¼ cup olive oil in a saucepan over low heat. Add onions and sauté until soft and translucent, about 2 minutes. Add garlic and cook until fragrant, about 1 minute. Add tomatoes and water, and simmer until tomatoes begin to break down and release their liquid, about 10 minutes. Add olives, capers, and parsley, and remove from heat.
Meanwhile, heat a large sauté pan over medium-high heat until very hot. Season tuna with salt and pepper and add to pan. Add 2 tablespoons olive oil to the pan and sear two of the tuna steaks on both sides until rare, about 1½ minutes per side. Remove tuna from pan and place on a serving plate. Repeat with remaining tuna steaks.
Reheat sauce and spoon over tuna. Serve warm.
Yield: 4 servings
Chef's Notes:
This is a classic Livornese dish. In Livorno, the tuna is added to the sauce and simmered until the fish is well-done. In this recipe, chef Amanda Freitag updates the dish for modern tastes by searing the tuna until rare.
To substitute canned tomatoes for the fresh plum tomatoes, omit the water in the recipe.
Look for firm, sushi-quality tuna, often referred to as "No. 1 tuna."
Ask your fishmonger for thick tuna steaks, about 2 inches thick. If you can only find thinner tuna, reduce cooking time to about 1 minute per side.
To get a proper sear on the tuna, it's important to let the pan get very hot before adding the fish.
Recipe courtesy of Amanda Freitag, chef Gusto, NYC
Click here to learn more about the James Beard Foundation.