French cuisine · Fish & Seafood

Basque-Style Tuna

Briefly seared tuna steaks finished on a pepper-and-tomato vegetable base with Espelette pepper.

Ingredients · for 4 servings

• 4 tuna steaks (approx. 180 g each)
• 3 red bell peppers
• 1 green bell pepper
• 400 g ripe tomatoes
• 2 onions
• 4 cloves garlic
• 1 tsp Espelette pepper (or mild chili powder)
• 100 ml dry white wine
• 5 tbsp olive oil
• 1/2 bunch flat-leaf parsley
• Salt, pepper

Instructions

1. Pat the tuna steaks dry, rub with 1 tbsp olive oil, season with half the Espelette pepper and keep chilled until frying.
2. Core the bell peppers and cut into 1 cm wide strips, cut the onions into wedges, slice the garlic, and peel, seed and dice the tomatoes.
3. Heat 3 tbsp olive oil in a wide pan and braise the onions, garlic and bell peppers over medium heat for 12–15 min. until the strips are soft and show color at the edges.
4. Add the tomatoes, white wine and the remaining Espelette pepper and reduce uncovered for 10 min. until the vegetables are thick and glossy, then salt and pepper.
5. Heat the remaining olive oil in a second pan until very hot and fry the salted tuna steaks for 90 sec. per side, until browned outside but still pink in the center.
6. Place the steaks on the hot vegetables, let rest covered for 2 min., sprinkle with chopped parsley and serve straight from the pan.