A chilled Italian sauce that’s perfect for summer is having a moment, thanks to “The Bear.”
Though the crew has been consistently slinging marinara, it was another sauce that got a special shoutout this season, like Hamburger Helper did earlier on.
Episode 9 is titled “Tonnato,” after the creamy tuna sauce — a dish that carries emotional significance for both Carmy (Jeremy Allen White) and his estranged mother Donna (Jamie Lee Curtis).
In this episode, Carmy arrives at Donna’s doorstep to hand over old photographs she asked for. He tries to leave — but she coaxes him inside and they hash things out over faded pictures.
In a quieter moment, Donna recalls a day alone in Italy after an argument with Carmy’s father.
A lady at a cafe made the sobbing Berzatto “red roasted peppers and a sauce” that tasted like “mayonnaise with fish.” She says it “looked disgusting” but was “delicious.”
“Tonnato,” Carmy says.
He makes her chicken tonnato, a dish he used to regularly prepare at French Laundry, reviving his mother’s memory of that meal in Italy.
Tonnato — “tuna” in Italian — comes from the Piedmont region in northwestern Italy and is typically made with tuna, anchovy, olive oil, lemon and mayonnaise, though some people add capers, dill, basil and more. The ingredients are then blended to form a smooth, creamy, beige sauce, which is commonly spooned over cold, sliced veal to make the dish called vitello tonnato.
These days, it’s not unusual to see it drizzled atop sliced tomatoes, asparagus, green beans and other vegetables.
“It’s a delicacy,” says Aimee France, a baker and food influencer who recently shared her off-the-cuff recipe online, “If you’ve never had it, you gotta try and don’t hate it’s so good, it’s like the dip of the summer.”
According to Italian food and wine magazine Gambero Rosso, the first published recipe for tonnato is in a 1862 book titled, “The kitchen of weak stomachs: that is, a few uncommon, simple, cheap and easy to digest dishes with some rules on good governance of the digestive tract,” which has three different recipes for vitello tonnato. The original sauce had tuna, anchovy, veal stock, oil and lemon.
“If you like tuna in general, or just are a tuna salad lover, you will love tonnato,” says France says, who likes to serve the sauce with crudites and potato chips, and even on tomato sandwiches.
How to make tonnato sauce
I made my own tonnato, and drizzled it on top of roasted red peppers, anchovies and fresh tomato. Courtesy Joseph Lamour
Tonnato sauce is surprisingly simple to make, involving four steps and one appliance. Katherine Lewin’s recipe swaps out the veal for tomatoes, making it perfect for summer.
To a blender or food processor, add lemon zest and juice, grated garlic, tuna, anchovies, mayonnaise, mustard, capers and black pepper.
While this blends, drizzle in some oil. And that’s really it. Once smooth, pour that over your tomatoes and imagine you’re in northern Italy as you take a bite. Maybe throw on a silk scarf and sunglasses.