Spaghetti With Olive Oil Poached Tuna In Tomato Fennel Sauce Recipes

OLIVE OIL-POACHED TUNA

Steps:

• Let tuna rest at room temperature for 10 to 15 minutes.
• Combine garlic, thyme, and red pepper flakes in a heavy skillet. Pour olive oil into skillet to reach a depth of 1 inch. Heat oil over medium heat until garlic and thyme begin to sizzle, 5 to 10 minutes.
• Place tuna gently in hot oil and reduce heat to low. Cook steaks in hot oil, spooning oil over the top of the steaks constantly, until fish is white and hot, 5 to 7 minutes. Remove from heat, transfer steaks to a baking dish, and pour hot oil and herbs over the fish. Cool fish and oil to room temperature.
• Wrap baking dish tightly in plastic wrap and refrigerate steaks for 24 hours. Remove fish from oil and sprinkle sea salt over the top.

PASTA WITH TUNA & TOMATO SAUCE

Steps:

• Heat the oil in a pan, throw in the onion and cook for a couple of minutes. Stir in the garlic, tomatoes, chilli and sugar. Season with salt and pepper and bring to the boil. Give it a good stir, then reduce the heat and simmer for 5 minutes.
• Meanwhile, bring a large pan of salted water to the boil. Add the pasta and cook according to packet instructions. Flake the tuna into the sauce and heat through. Drain the pasta, return to the pan and stir in the sauce and basil leaves if you have any. Serve with a generous grinding of pepper.

TUNA, TOMATOES AND SPAGHETTI

Steps:

• Heat garlic in oil until lightly golden. Add tomatoes and their juices and heat for 20 minutes over low heat until tomatoes are really tender and almost melted. Crumble tuna into smaller pieces and add to tomato sauce. Simmer just to warm the tuna through; you don't want to boil the tuna. Transfer spaghetti to serving bowl and mix in tuna, tomatoes, parsley; and salt & pepper.

SEARED TUNA, ROASTED TOMATOES & FENNEL WITH A OLIVE SAUCE

Steps:

• Sauce -- Start to prepare the sauce. In a large NOT non stick pan which you will be cooking the tuna in add the fennel seeds over medium and just toast a few minutes to get lightly toasted. No oil, just a dry pan and will only take a minute. Remove when toasted and just set to the side.
• Now if you don't have fennel seeds, don't panic. The dish will taste just fine. I just like that additional layer of flavor but don't worry and don't make a extra trip to the store just for them. They do however make a great additional to your spice cabinet.
• Tuna -- Remove tuna from the fridge to take some of the chill off. I like to cook mine more and room temperature. Prepare all your vegetables. For the fennel, remove the green parts and slice like a onion.
• Vegetables -- Roast your tomatoes and fennel in a 400 degree oven. On a cookie sheet covered with foil or parchment paper, lightly drizzle your tomatoes and fennel with olive oil, salt and pepper and roast 10 minutes, just until slightly brown and the tomatoes start to soften. Don't over cook you still want them fresh tasting.
• Tuna round II -- As the tomatoes and fennel cook, start your tuna. Season well with salt and pepper and in that same pan you toasted the fennel seeds heat on medium high heat and add 1 tablespoon of olive oil. Sear the tuna until it gets a nice crust on one side without moving. Should take 3-5 minutes depending on the thickness. Thinner cuts will take much less and you do not want to over cook it. Flip over and the second size will take even less time. You want it rare - medium rare, so I usually remove when rare. Set to the side and cover with foil as you make the sauce.
• Olive sauce -- in the pan that you cooked the tuna in, add the garlic and shallot and cook just a minute also on medium to medium high heat. You can add a little extra olive oil if necessary, but you shouldn't need any. Then add the white wine and red pepper flakes. Let cook another minute to reduce slightly. Then add the olives, lemon juice, zest, any additional salt and pepper if needed, but olives are salty so be careful. The last thing, stir in the fennel seeds and then just let simmer on medium for another minute just to slightly reduce. Remember, this is a thin sauce, not a gravy.
• Plate it up! If using a salad like I mentioned in the description, I would plate the salad, then top with the tuna. Top with a slice or two of the tomatoes and a few fennel slices. Then drizzle the olive sauce over the whole thing. ENJOY!

SPAGHETTI WITH OLIVE-OIL-POACHED TUNA IN TOMATO-FENNEL SAUCE

Steps:

• FOR THE TUNA
• Add the fennel seeds to a small sauté pan and bring to medium-high heat. (You need toasted fennel seeds for both the tuna and the sauce, so toss 2 tablespoons in the pan now and save a step later!) Toast the fennel seeds, shaking the pan frequently, until they are very aromatic and start to turn a brighter shade of green, 3 to 4 minutes. Remove from the heat and grind the seeds in a spice grinder or crush with a mortar and pestle.
• Season the tuna belly with salt, red pepper, and half the ground fennel seeds (you're saving the other half for the sauce).
• Preheat the oven to 200°F.
• Put the tuna in a medium ovenproof saucepan and cover with olive oil. Toss in the garlic, bay leaves, and thyme bundle. Cover and put in the oven; cook for 1 hour. Remove and let cool to room temperature. Use immediately or refrigerate in an airtight container.
• FOR THE SAUCE AND PASTA
• Coat a large wide saucepan with olive oil and add the onions and fennel; season with salt and red pepper and bring to medium heat. Cook the veggies until soft and aromatic, 8 to 10 minutes. Add the garlic and cook for another 2 to 3 minutes.
• Add the tomatoes, the reserved tablespoon of toasted fennel seeds, and 1 cup water to the pan and season with salt. Bring to a boil (BTB) and reduce to a simmer (RTS); simmer for 30 minutes.
• Bring a large pot of well-salted water to a boil. Add the pasta and cook for 1 minute less than the instructions on the package suggest. Taste it: It should be toothsome with just a little nugget of hard pasta still in the center-this is al dente.
• Remove the tuna from the olive oil, break it up, and add it to the sauce.
• Drain the pasta and add it to the sauce; stir vigorously to combine. Add a drizzle of big fat finishing oil and serve garnished with fennel fronds.
• YOU SAY TOMATO, I SAY SAN MARZANO
• San Marzano tomatoes are, as the name suggests, from San Marzano, Italy, outside of Naples. Sweet and delicious, these canned tomatoes are naturally very low in acid. Sometimes you'll notice people add a pinch of sugar to tomatoes when making sauce-this is not to sweeten the sauce so much as to offset the acid in the tomatoes. When you're using San Marzano tomatoes, this isn't necessary because they're naturally super-sweet and low in acid. However, for this same reason, they need a lot of salt to bring out their best flavor . . . accept it and move on.
• San Marzano tomatoes are perfect for sauce, and they work beautifully with my favorite piece of kitchen equipment: the food mill. It's super-old school but I love using a food mill to purée tomatoes because it lets the seeds slip through, leaving all the big-money stuff up top. Remember, when you put your tomatoes through a food mill, be sure to scrape the pulp off the bottom to get every last bit of tomato-y goodness! This is the stuff that will help thicken the sauce, so you don't want to leave it behind. Got it?