Chicken tonnato (with Italian tuna sauce)

This silken, briny, creamy tuna sauce is quite addictive – and equally good spooned over thick slices of rare roast beef, or, as in Italy, poached veal. If you have a glut of summer tomatoes, that’s perfect, too. This serving does one big platter.

Jill Dupleix

All recipes by Jill Dupleix

Ingredients show imperial units

Serves 4

125g tuna

Canned Fish

Tuna flakes, sardines, mackerel, anchovies, all great emergency fish for salads, baked potatoes, pasta.

If you have any leftover it’s best not to store the fish in tins. Instead, tip into a plastic container and cover with a lid.

in good oil (e.g Ortiz)
2 anchovy fillets
1 tablespoon lemon juice
100ml light mayonnaise

Mayonnaise

Good for sandwiches and dressings

Unopened commercial mayonnaise can be stored on the shelf up to the use by date. Once opened, it must be refrigerated but will still last up to a year or six months from the date on the jar.
1 teaspoon tomato puree

Tomato puree

Concentrate made from paste type tomatoes that have high pectin content.

When they’re cooked down, they’re put through a strainer to remove skins and seeds, and reduced further until almost all of the moisture has evaporated. Usually a recipe will call for a tablespoon or two, just enough to enrich a beef stew, for instance, or to deepen the flavour of a sauce made with fresh tomatoes.
2 teaspoons horseradish cream
2 tablespoons tiny salted capers, rinsed
Up to 60ml light chicken stock

Stocks

Made from your meat and fish bones.

Frozen in ice cubes for gravies, risotto and cooking rice. Once frozen, remove from the ice trays and pack into freezer bags. Use stock powder or cubes if you do not have any home made available.
1 cucumber, unpeeled
Leftover meat e.g. cooked chicken or rare roast beef
1 tomato, diced
2 tablespoons flatleaf parsley

Herbs

Ideal for seasoning pastas.

To keep cut parsley or coriander, put in a hole free polythene bag with a couple of tablespoons of cold water, give the bag a good shake and keep in the salad drawer of the fridge. Herbs should keep for a week like this.

(or mustard cress)

Instructions

To make the sauce, place the tuna, anchovies, lemon juice, mayonnaise, tomato puree, horseradish and half the capers into a blender or food processor and whiz to a puree. Add the stock by the tablespoon, whizzing, until you have the consistency of a thick pouring custard. Refrigerate until you are ready to serve.
Slice the cucumber lengthways into fine shavings and arrange on a big serving platter.
Slice the chicken on the diagonal (or the rare roast beef finely) and arrange in a single layer or overlapping on a large platter. Spoon the sauce over the chicken and scatter with the remaining capers, diced tomato and parsley.

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