Vitello tonnato

1. Place the veal rump in a high-sided casserole together with the cleaned vegetables, cloves, bay leaf, peppercorns and coarse salt. Pour in the white wine and cover with cold water until the meat is submerged by at least three fingers.
2. Bring to a boil over medium heat, carefully skim any impurities that rise to the surface, then reduce to the lowest heat and continue cooking at a very low simmer for approximately 60-80 minutes, depending on the size of the cut. The internal temperature should reach 65°C to keep the meat pink and juicy.
3. Once cooking is complete, turn off the heat and allow the meat to cool completely immersed in its broth. This step prevents external oxidation and ensures a uniform, silky texture.
4. Remove the meat from the broth, pat it gently dry with kitchen paper and wrap it in food wrap. Refrigerate until ready to slice. Strain and preserve the cooking broth.
5. Cook the eggs in boiling water for 9 minutes, cool under running water and shell them. Separate the yolks from the whites and set aside the whites for other uses.
6. In the bowl of an immersion blender, combine the hard-boiled yolks, the well-drained tuna, the anchovy fillets and the capers. Blend intermittently while gradually adding the cold, filtered cooking broth until you achieve a dense, smooth and glossy cream. Adjust the consistency with the broth, then balance with filtered lemon juice.
7. Slice the cold veal rump transversely against the grain to a thickness of 2-3 mm, ideally with a meat slicer. Arrange the slices on the serving platter without overlapping them excessively and coat with the vitello tonnato sauce.
8. Cover with food wrap in direct contact and let rest in the refrigerator for at least 4 hours, preferably overnight, before serving.

Vitello tonnato, in Piedmontese Vitel Tonnè, is one of the most representative dishes of Savoyard cuisine: a cold appetizer that combines boiled veal with a dense sauce made from tuna, anchovies and capers, creating a gustatory balance that still divides and fascinates equally today. Its strength lies precisely in this: uniting the delicacy of the eye of round cooked slowly in aromatic broth with the savory quality of sea ingredients, without either of the two elements prevailing over the other.

Born in the rural kitchens of Piedmont as a cold dish for summer celebrations, vitello tonnato has crossed the centuries finding a place both on peasant tables and at the banquets of Turin's bourgeoisie. It is typically served as an appetizer on grand occasions, from patron saint festivals to Sunday lunches, but it is also a permanent protagonist of summer buffets. The flavor profile is complex: the meat, sliced thin and kept rosy at the center, absorbs during its rest in the refrigerator the umami notes of the sauce, which balances fat and acidity thanks to the intervention of lemon juice. The natural pairing is with a dry and fragrant Piedmontese white wine, capable of handling the savory quality without covering the delicate structure of the meat.

Vitello tonnato has different interpretations depending on the region and era.

• Monferrato version: Some traditional preparations include the addition of a tablespoon of white wine vinegar in the cooking broth, which gives the meat a slightly pungent note and the sauce greater acidic freshness.
• Mayonnaise version: Widespread from the second half of the twentieth century, it incorporates mayonnaise into the tuna sauce in place of just the cooking broth, obtaining a richer and more stable cream, also suitable for advance preparation. Technically simpler, but less faithful to the historical recipe.
• Contemporary gourmet version: It calls for mayonnaise whipped by hand with grapeseed oil for an aerated texture, finishing with dehydrated caper powder and, in some cases, lemon gel instead of fresh juice.
• Light version: A portion of the hard-boiled egg yolks is replaced with mashed boiled potato, which maintains the creaminess of the sauce while reducing fat content without significantly altering the flavor profile.

Tonnata sauce, rich and savory, requires white wines with good acidity and medium body, capable of cleansing the palate without overwhelming the delicacy of vitello tonnato.

• Roero Arneis DOCG: Citrus freshness and floral notes that dialogue with the lemon in the sauce; the restrained structure does not compete with the meat.
• Gavi di Gavi DOCG: Minerality and sharp acidity, ideal for balancing the savory notes of tuna and anchovies.
• Alta Langa Metodo Classico: Fine bubbles and the savory vein of Pinot Nero in purity or in assemblage with Chardonnay effectively cleanse the richness of the cream.
• Artisanal Saison Beer: For an unconventional pairing, a dry and spiced Saison handles the complexity of the sauce with its peppery notes and lively carbonation.

• Store in the refrigerator at 2-4°C, with the sauce already distributed on the meat and the surface covered with food-contact plastic wrap to prevent oxidation.
• Maximum recommended duration: 48 hours from preparation; within the third day if refrigeration conditions are constant and the dish has not been exposed to room temperature for prolonged periods.
• Do not freeze: both the boiled meat and the sauce based on eggs and tuna irreversibly lose texture and cohesion with the freeze-thaw cycle.
• If you wish to prepare in advance, store the meat and sauce separately and assemble the dish on the day of service.

The salt routes that descended from Liguria towards the Langhe and Monferrato left deep traces in Piedmontese cuisine, and vitello tonnato is perhaps the most eloquent. The term tonnato does not have direct marine origins: it indicates a technique of preserving and cooking meat that imitated the treatment of tuna, boiled and kept immersed in its own liquid. Only later, thanks to commercial trade that brought canned tuna and salt-preserved anchovies into inland kitchens, did the fish physically enter the recipe.

In nineteenth-century countryside households, the dish often arose from the recovery of veal left over from Sunday's boiled meat, dressed with a cream that masked its drying out and ennobled it. The shift towards a bourgeois appetizer occurred in the inns of Turin and Cuneo, where then-expensive ingredients like canned ventresca and Pantelleria capers became the mark of a wealthy table. Pellegrino Artusi reported a version of it in his work of 1891, contributing to fixing its profile. Today Vitel Tonnè is recognized as one of the symbols of Piedmontese gastronomic identity, present in the Register of Italian Traditional Recipes.