Tuna Ceviche

I'm forsaking the local and seasonal mission of this blog, but it's cold and dreary here in New Hampshire, and given that its my first post in quite some time, I wanted to post something bright and cheery. Besides, spring is only three months away...

Tuna Ceviche

Serves 2

Ingredients:

• 1/2 lb tuna fillet, sliced against the grain in 1/4-inch slices
• juice of 3 limes
• 1/2 red onion, thinly sliced
• 1/2 avocado, diced
• 2 tbsp cilantro, minced
• sea salt, to taste
• tortilla chips

Directions:

1. Put the tuna in the freezer for 15 minutes so that it becomes firm (so that it can be easily diced). 
2. Dice the tuna into 1/4-inch cubes and add to a medium bowl.
3. Add the lime juice and onion to the bowl with the tuna and stir the ingredients to ensure that each piece of tuna is covered with the marinade. Cover and refrigerate for an hour, stirring every 20 minutes.
4. Remove the tuna from the refrigerator and stir in the avocado, cilantro, and sea salt. Serve the tuna on a bed of tortilla chips.

Ziti with Tuna, Red Onions, and Cannellini Beans

I love a recipe that takes old and familiar flavors and transforms them into something completely different.  In his Urban Italian, Andrew Carmellini says that this pasta recipe pays homage to tuna casserole, but I think a more appropriate and more flattering comparison can be made to salad Nicoise.  Between the tang of the lemons and the briny olives and capers, this recipe really is the pasta version of a salad Nicoise.  While the dish is meant to be served warm, I brought the leftover pasta to work and enjoyed it as a cold salad as well.  Now if only there was an easy way to make Cobb salad into a pasta dish...

Ziti with Tuna, Red Onions, and Cannellini Beans
Adapted from Urban Italian

Ingredients:

• 1 lb penne 
• 2 tbsp olive oil, plus more for finishing the dish
• 1 red onion, thinly sliced
• 1/4 cup dry white wine
• 1/4 tsp dried red pepper flakes
• 1 15-oz can cannellini beans, drained and rinsed
• 1 cup cherry tomatoes, halved
• 1 1/2 cups good-quality canned tuna in olive oil
• 1/2 cup pitted Kalamata olives, halved
• juice and zest of 3 lemons
• 2 tbsp parsley, chopped
• 1/4 cup basil, chopped
• 2 tbsp capers, drained
• 1 tsp dried oregano
• salt and pepper, to taste
• 2 tbsp toasted breadcrumbs

Directions:

1. Bring salted water to a boil in a large pot.  Cook the pasta in the water according to the package directions.  Drain the pasta and toss with a spoonful of olive oil to prevent the pasta pieces from sticking together.  Set the pasta aside and dry the pot.
2. Add 2 tbsp olive oil the the pot used to cook the pasta and heat the oil over medium-low heat.  
3. Add the red onion to the pot and cook, stirring occasionally, until the onion is soft, about 3 minutes.
4. Pour in the white wine and red pepper flakes.  Bring the wine to a boil and cook, stirring occasionally, until the liquid is almost completely reduced, about 3 minutes.
5. Reduce the heat to medium-low.  Add the beans and the pasta to the pot and continue to cook for another 2 minutes, stirring frequently.  Remove the pot from the heat. 
6. Mix in the cherry tomatoes, tuna, olives, lemon juice and zest, parsley, basil, capers, and oregano with the pasta.  Season the pasta with salt and pepper.
7. Serve the pasta drizzled with olive oil and topped with the toasted breadcrumbs. 

Braised Tuna with Radicchio, Chickpeas, and Rosemary

The other day, I made Braised Tuna with Radicchio, Chickpeas, and Rosemary from Molly Stevens' wonderful All About Braising. Braising may sound like a terrible way to cook a nice piece of tuna, but the recipe works beautifully. The key is to keep the braising liquid at the gentlest of simmers, cooking the tuna just enough so that it remains pink on the inside. I cooked two 1.25 inch thick steaks for 8 minutes. The braising liquid is infused with the strong flavors of rosemary and radicchio, and the chickpeas lend the dish additional heartiness. This is an easy one pot meal, with the only necessary accompaniment being a baguette to soak up the delicious sauce.

Sesame-Crusted Tuna Steaks

I always have somewhat of an ethical dilemma when I purchase tuna. It's over-fished, but it also happens to be one of my favorite seafoods. Unfortunately, there is really no substitute for the rich, meaty taste of a seared tuna steak, so I have chosen to continue to eat tuna, but only sparingly and only when confident that it has been line caught. This past Sunday, I could not resist purchasing tuna steaks from American Seafood at my local Greenmarket. Caught early that morning off the coast of Long Island, this was some well-sourced tuna that I felt a bit less guilty about enjoying.

I chose to encrust the tuna steaks in a mixture of sesame seeds and spices based on this recipe from Food & Wine magazine. I served the fish with roasted corn mayonnaise with kicked up with some sriracha sauce.

Sesame-Crusted Tuna Steaks
Serves 4

Ingredients:

• 4 6-ounce tuna steaks
• 4 tbsp. grapeseed oil
• 1 tbsp. lime zest
• 1 tsp. ground white pepper
• 1 tsp. sweet paprika
• 1 tsp. salt
• 1 tbsp. grated ginger
• 1/2 tsp . crushed red pepper
• 3 tbsp. while sesame seeds
• 3 tbsp. black sesame seeds

Directions:

1. In a bowl combine all ingredients except for the oil and tuna.
2. Brush tuna steaks on all sides with 2 tbsp. oil.
3. Rub spice mixture over tuna steaks, patting them down to ensure that the spices adhere.
4. Meanwhile, heat remaining oil in a large skillet over high heat until very hot.
5. Add tuna to skillet and sear until just cooked on the outside and rare in the middle, no more than two minutes per side.
6. Serve tuna with spicy mayonnaise and lime wedges.

Pan Bagnat

There's no need to buy a sandwich press to make a great pressed sandwich. Pan Bagnat (pronounced "pan ban-YAH") is a classic cold pressed sandwich from Nice, France. Essentially, it's a Nicoise salad on bread, but even better as the bread, tuna, and vegetables all soak the vinaigrette when the sandwich is pressed together with a heavy object for 20 minutes. It's lightly more labor-intensive than a standard sandwich, but so much better. I used this recipe from The New York Times, and I followed my lunch with lots of minty gum.