Vitel Toné – Veal in Tuna Sauce
The dish that cannot be missing from an Argentine Christmas table — and there Christmas falls in high summer, which is why it is served cold. Originally from Piedmont (vitello tonnato), and at home in Argentina for generations: a joint simmered with vegetables, sliced very thinly and covered with a sauce of tuna, anchovies and capers.
Two things decide the result. First: the meat must not boil hard. A barely visible simmer leaves it tender; vigorous boiling squeezes the juice out and makes it dry.
Second: it cools in its own broth, ideally overnight. As it does, it draws back the liquid it lost while cooking. A joint that cools outside the broth never becomes juicy again.
Taste before you salt: the tuna and the anchovies already bring plenty of their own.
Ingredients
- 1 eye of round or lean veal joint of 1.2 to 1.5 kg, trimmed of fat
- 1 onion, 1 carrot and 1 celery stick
- 2 bay leaves and a few peppercorns
- Coarse salt
- For the sauce: 2 tins of tuna in water, drained (240 g)
- 4 anchovy fillets
- 3 hard-boiled egg yolks
- 250 g mayonnaise
- 200 ml pouring cream
- 2 tbsp capers (plus extra to garnish)
- Cooking broth, as needed
Method
- 1
Put the joint in a pot with the onion, the carrot, the celery, the bay, the peppercorns and coarse salt. Cover with cold water and set over medium heat.
- 2
Once it boils, turn the heat down and cook at a gentle simmer for 80-90 minutes. A violent boil dries it out; a barely perceptible bubbling leaves it tender.
- 3
Let the joint cool INSIDE the broth: that is where it finishes rehydrating. Ideally overnight in the fridge.
- 4
For the sauce, blend the tuna with the anchovies, the hard-boiled egg yolks and the capers to a paste.
- 5
Work in the mayonnaise and the cream, and loosen it with cold broth a spoonful at a time until you have a sauce that coats without being runny. Taste before salting: the tuna and the anchovies already bring salt.
- 6
Cut the cold joint into very fine slices, with a sharp knife or on a slicer if you prefer.
- 7
Assemble on a platter: a layer of sauce, a layer of meat, and repeat, finishing with sauce. Decorate with capers.
- 8
Chill for at least 4 hours (better from the day before): vitel toné is served cold and with the flavours settled together.