RAFAEL PANTRY CAGALI TONNATO

TONNATA AT ELIS BY RAFAEL CAGALI

This recipe makes 2-3 starter size portions worth (the size served at Elis)

INGREDIENTS

VITELLO TONNATO SAUCE

For Paste:

80g tinned tuna

9g capers

75g anchovies

10g caper brine

For Sauce:

120g paste

60g egg yolk

400g tuna oil/neutral oil

PORK

A high quality 500g chunk of pork belly is the smallest you’ll want to use the cooking method for, any leftover pork can be utilised however you like.

GARNISH

Handful of crispy fried capers (fry capers in a bit of oil until crispy)

Handful of mustard cress

Good quality EVOO

METHOD

PORK

First, remove the skin and bones from the pork belly.

Note: you can always ask your butcher to do this for you. Place the belly into a 10% brine (i.e. 20 gram salt, 200 ml water) for 24 hours. This helps flavour the meat and keeps it nice and pink. Note: this is not absolutely essential if you’re short on time, a nice overnight salting works well.

Once out of the brine, wash under cold water for 5 minutes and dry well. Roll the pork belly and tie with butchers string. Vacuum pack the meat and steam at 80 degrees for 4 hours. Once cooked, cool down in ice water.

Note: instead of steaming, you can either poach/simmer until tender or cook on very low in the oven.

Once cold, slice the porchetta as thin as you can with a sharp knife.

SAUCE

To make the paste, blitz all the ingredients in a blender/vitamix until smooth then pass through a sieve/chinois to make it extra smooth. For the sauce, blitz the paste and egg yolk together on a medium speed, slowly add the tuna oil/neutral oil until it is emulsified and thick. Adjust the seasoning with salt and chardonnay vinegar.

To Serve

Put a generous amount of tonnata sauce in the bottom of a bowl. For each bowl/serving, place 6 slices on top of the sauce adding some additional sauce on top.

Finish with some crispy fried capers and olive oil and some peppery mustard cress. @rafacagali

15% OFF ALL COFFEE WITH THE CODE: EJ15