Recipe: Basque-style tuna

Name: Basque-style tuna
Prep time: 20 min
Cook time: 60 min
Total time: 80 min
Yield: 4 servings
Cuisine: French
Ingredients: 4 slices of fresh red tuna; 5 ripe tomatoes cut into pieces; 6 green sweet peppers cut into dice; 2 large bell peppers roughly chopped; Parsley, thyme, bay leaf, Espelette pepper; Olive oil; Flour; 1 sliced onion; 2 sliced garlic cloves

By AFTouch-Cuisine 5/5 (2 reviews)

Recipe Basque-style tuna - Chef recipe — Photo: Aftouch-cuisine

Prep 20 min

Cook 60 min

Total 1h20

Servings 4 serv.

Basque-style tuna is made with firm red tuna flesh that absorbs the moisture of a tomato and pepper sauce for 15 minutes. Here's the secret: don't cook the fish too long at first, just leave it pearly, then finish it in the sauce. It makes all the difference.

Ingredients for 4 servings

Adjust for

servings

4 slices of fresh red tuna
5 ripe tomatoes cut into pieces
6 green sweet peppers cut into dice
2 large bell peppers roughly chopped
Parsley, thyme, bay leaf, Espelette pepper
Olive oil
Flour
1 sliced onion
2 sliced garlic cloves

Step-by-step directions

1 Sauté the tomatoes, peppers, chilli peppers, onion and garlic in a little oil over low heat.

2 Add the chopped parsley, bay leaf and thyme. Season with salt, pepper and chilli pepper.

3 Let simmer for 30 minutes.

4 After dusting the tuna in flour, sauté it over very low heat for 20 to 25 minutes. Then incorporate it into the sauce and let your Basque-style tuna cook for another 15 minutes so it absorbs the flavour.

A chef's advice

Flour the tuna 5 minutes before cooking, no earlier. The flour should create a light crust in the pan, otherwise it swells and absorbs the oil. Use very low heat afterwards, 20 to 25 minutes maximum. Beyond that, the flesh turns grey and falls apart.