Tuna Casserole with Green Olives
A Basque casserole: fresh tuna, green olives and spices cooked slowly in olive oil.
- Time
- 33 minutes
- Serves
- 4
- Level
- Medium
- Cuisine
- Turkish
Basque cooking is known for treating tuna in a pot, slowly, alongside vegetables; this casserole carries the spirit of that tradition — with green olives, tomato and olive oil.
The whole difficulty of the recipe gathers at a single point: tuna cooks very quickly. Its dark flesh is firm and lean, and a few minutes too long leaves it dry and stringy. That is why the fish goes in last, laid into a sauce that is already finished, and stays there for only fifteen to eighteen minutes. The sauce cooks long, the fish cooks short — the same pot, but not the same amount of time.
Directions
- Soften the onion and garlic in the olive oil until pale gold.
- Add the green pepper and cook for 3 minutes.
- Add the tomatoes, chilli flakes and bay leaf. Simmer gently for 10 minutes.
- Stir the olives into the sauce.
- Lay the pieces of tuna in the sauce and spoon it over them.
- Cook covered over low heat for 15-18 minutes; do not let the fish overcook.
- Scatter with fresh parsley and serve with fresh bread.
Tips & storage
Lay the fish into the sauce; don't stir. Tuna tends to break up as it cooks. Set the pieces into the sauce, spoon sauce over them, and leave the pan alone.
Underdone beats overdone. Tuna still faintly pink at the centre is juicy and full of flavour; cooked until uniformly matt, it edges towards the texture of the tinned fish. Check at fifteen minutes.
Bonito works too — better still in season. Along the Turkish coast, autumn bonito is both cheaper and fattier, and being fattier it is less likely to dry out.
Green olives are a deliberate choice. Black olives stay sweet in this sauce and overtake the fish; the sharpness of green ones cuts through its oil.
Take the bay leaf out. Remove it before serving — a bay leaf left on the plate is bitter if anyone bites it.
Eat it the same day. This is one of the rare dishes in this family that does not keep. Reheated tuna dries out and its smell sharpens.
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