Chef Matteo Carboni from the Academia Barilla Culinary School shows us in this video recipe how to make a Sicilian dish, Caponata, which he pairs with a seared tuna steak.
Caponata is a Southern Italian traditional recipe, a typical side dish in Sicilian cuisine. The main ingredients are eggplants, bell peppers, onions, and zucchini, cooked with mint, garlic, capers, pine nuts, white vinegar, pistachios, dried sultanas, sugar and vinegar.
In a frying pan Chef Carboni pours a little bit of extra virgin olive oil, and sautes the red onion first, then red pepper, and at last, the zucchini.
After a 3 or 4 minutes minutes we can add the other ingredients: capers, sultanas, pine nuts, sugar, white vinegar, pistachios, and the deep fried eggplant. Once the Caponata is ready, Chef Carboni puts it at rest in a warm place, and moves on to the Tuna steak.
The tuna steak should be at least 1 inch thick to be correctly seared, advices Chef Carboni.
In a frying pan Chef Carboni puts some Italian extra virgin olive oil, crushed garlic (to be removed later) and sears the tuna steak with 1 minute cooking time per side approx. When the tuna steak is seared, it can be served as a whole steak, or cut into slices, as in Chef Carboni’s serving suggestion.
Chef Matteo Carboni suggests to use a tin stamp to serve the caponata on the side of the dish, while serving the sliced seared tuna steak on the other side, not before giving a final touch with extra virgin olive oil, natural sea salt, and freshly ground pepper. As a final presentation touch, Chef Matteo adds deep fried basil leaves. Yum.
For more Italian food recipes visit Academia Barilla’s Italian Food Lovers blog.
Sicilian Caponata with Seared Tuna Steak
Servings 4
Chef Matteo Carboni
Ingredients
1 lb tuna
3 ½ oz onion
3 ½ oz eggplant
3 ½ oz zucchini
3 ½ oz red pepper
1 oz raisins
1 oz pine nuts
1 oz pistachios
1 tablespoon white balsamic vinegar
1 oz sugar
1 clove of garlic
1 pinch salt
black pepper to taste
extra virgin olive oil to taste
Prepare as above.