Vitello Tonnato Recipe | How to Make Piedmontese Veal

This recipe is quite old—it appears in Italy’s first cookbook, in fact—and was born during one of a number of periods where Italian cuisine was heavily influenced by French cooking. Unsurprisingly, it exploded in popularity during the 1980s, another such period where French influences made their mark. Although it is less commonly eaten today, you can still found it proudly served in Piedmont to this day.

Vitello Tonnato Recipe | How to Make Piedmontese Veal

The dish, which is always served cold, consists of thin slices of medium-rare veal topped with a punchy, savory sauce made from an unusual combination of tuna fish and hardboiled eggs.

A Note on the Veal

The traditional cut of veal used to make vitello tonnato is “eye round.” This isn’t always easy to source, but a workable substitute is top round, which is much more widely available. Try to find a roast that is cut long and thin, almost cylindrical, so that the meat can be sliced into small, round slices.

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VITELLO TONNATO RECIPE

Makes: Enough sauce for about 2 pounds (900 g) of veal. The sauce (and the meat, for that matter) doesn’t need to be served all at once and can be kept refrigerated for about a week.

Cook Time: 1 ½ to 2 hours

For this recipe, you will need:

• Veal eye or top round roast, up to 2 pounds (900 g)

• 1 white onion, quartered

• 1 large carrot, cut into 3 to 4 pieces

• 2 celery ribs, each cut into 3 to 4 pieces

• 2 to 3 bay leaves

• 3 to 4 sprigs of fresh parsley

• 1 tablespoon (6 g) black peppercorns

• 5 to 6 whole cloves

• Salt

• 4 ounce (113 g) can of whole chunk tuna fish under olive oil, drained

• 2 tablespoons (15 g) capers, plus extra for garnishing (optional)

• 2 anchovies under oil

• 2 hardboiled eggs

While it’s not strictly necessary, we recommend tying up the veal roast with butcher twine to keep it compact and easier to handle. Place the veal in a large pot with the onion, carrot, celery, bay leaves, parsley, peppercorns and cloves. Fill the pot with water and bring it to a brisk simmer. Salt the broth generously.

Cook the veal until the internal temperature of the meat measures 145-150° F (63-65° C) with an instant read thermometer—about 30 minutes, depending on the size of your roast. Remove the meat from the pot and let it cool to room temperature. Reserve ⅔ cup (150 ml) of the broth.

In a blender, combine the tuna fish, capers, anchovies, hardboiled eggs and the reserved meat broth. Blend until even, smooth and creamy. The anchovies and capers will naturally add seasoning, but you may find that you need to salt the sauce to taste.

When the meat has cooled completely, slice it as thinly as possible and arrange the slices flat on a large platter. Generously spread the sauce over all of the meat. Optionally, garnish with a sprinkling of capers.

Buon appetito!