Pork with tuna sauce

Name: Pork with tuna sauce
Total time: 1 h
Ingredients: 1kg pork loin, boneless, skin removed; 1 sprig of thyme, leaves picked; 1 garlic clove; 1 tin of tuna, ideally Spanish and top quality; 1 small tin of anchovies, ideally Spanish, drained; 1 tbsp of capers, ideally Spanish; 280ml of olive oil; 1 egg yolk; 1/2 lemon, juiced; salt; freshly ground black pepper

by Anna Tobias

Item 1 of 1

Main
easy
4
60 minutes

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Veal tonnato is one of Italy's most beloved dishes, and this Spanish-inspired twist replaces the veal with pork and uses the best Spanish tuna and anchovies to – dare we say it – improve upon the original. The sauce is essentially a tuna-flavoured mayonnaise which might sound a bit weird if you've never had it before. For those of us who have, however, it's an incredible thing to slather over cold cuts of all kinds.

First published in 2020

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Ingredients

Metric

Imperial

1kg pork loin, boneless, skin removed
1 sprig of thyme, leaves picked
1 garlic clove
1 tin of tuna, ideally Spanish and top quality
1 small tin of anchovies, ideally Spanish, drained
1 tbsp of capers, ideally Spanish
280ml of olive oil
1 egg yolk
1/2 lemon, juiced
salt
freshly ground black pepper

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Method

I like to serve pork a little pink, which isn’t to everyone’s taste. If you prefer your pork cooked through, then add on 20 minutes to the suggested cooking time below

Preheat an oven to 200°C fan/gas mark 5. If your loin of pork is very fatty, then trim the fat so that you have a 1cm border around the meat

Pound the garlic clove and thyme leaves in a pestle and mortar until you have a paste. Add 30ml olive oil and season generously with salt and pepper. Rub this all over the pork loin

Place your loin in a baking dish, fat-side down and put in the oven. Turn the pork over after 20 minutes and cook for a further 25 minutes. The loin should be cooked by this time. To check, place a metal skewer into the centre of the meat and leave for a few seconds. The skewer should feel hot but not burning hot. Allow the pork to cool completely

While the pork cools, make your sauce. Put the tuna, egg yolk and lemon juice in a food processor. Season with salt and pepper. Turn the processor on and blend until the ingredients become a smooth purée. With the motor still running, slowly drizzle in the remaining olive oil in a thin stream. If the mixture seems a little thick after adding all the oil then add a splash of water. The sauce wants to be roughly the thickness of yoghurt. Taste and adjust the seasoning if needed

Once the pork is cool, slice it as thinly as possible using a sharp knife. Layer the slices on a large plate or platter. If you have some nice roasting juices from the pork then drizzle a few spoons of this over the pork. Taste a slice and adjust the seasoning appropriately

Generously slather the tuna sauce over the pork. Drape the anchovies on top and sprinkle over the capers