A Mediterranean Vacation in the Middle of a Snowstorm

I don't know about you, but we have been getting A LOT of snow lately. We've been eating a lot of hearty, stick-to-your-ribs type winter dishes to cope, but Saturday we decided to go a different route. What better way to cure the winter blues than with a bright, flavorful dish from somewhere sunny and warm?

Tuna in spicy sauce, with brussels sprouts and potatoes.

Matt went to Provence a few years ago (without me - what nerve), and brought me back a cookbook of traditional dishes, all in French. We've made a few dishes from it over the years, and they've all been bright and reminiscent of somewhere warm and sunny - a far cry from the weather here Saturday as we braced for another snowstorm. So I paged through the cookbook to find something that we could make for dinner that would transport us somewhere outside of Boston and be a welcome respite from a winter that seems to never end. (As a side note, I realize it sounds like I'm complaining a lot about all the winter - and I am - but I'm also resigned to it. It is the northeast, after all.) And so that's how we decided to make thon en sauce piquante.

Les oignons et les gousses d'ail dans la sauteuse.

That's tuna in spicy sauce, for those of you who aren't taking a French class. I've always liked the verb piquer, from which piquante is derived. It's one of those great French words that kind of translates into English, but has a much more robust meaning in French (in my opinion). A sauce piquante is prickly, has bite, and tingles a little in the way that a small thorn might cause a short-lived sting on your leg while you're out in the woods. It's not hot-spicy, or at least, not too hot-spicy. It's good spicy, flavorful spicy, you know - piquante.

Tuna in the sauce, sprinkled with cayenne and salt.

It's also delicious, incredibly easy to make, and can be on the table in about 30 minutes (depending on how cooked through you want your fish). We left out the anchovies, and didn't miss them, although I'm sure they'd add a good depth to the sauce. I wasn't sure how adding a whole cup of vinegar would turn out - it seems like an awful lot of vinegar and I was worried that the sauce would end up tasting too much like vinegar. It didn't - the vinegar adds just the right amount of bite (ça pique un peu) and keeps the dish tasting fresh and summery. If you're not into capers, I think you could substitute olives instead and still keep the flavor of Provence. If you cook the fish according to the directions, you'll end up with a pretty red center, as you're supposed to with tuna. I cooked it a little longer with the lid on to cook it all the way through; you might need to add a little more water if you do that. I know you're not supposed to because the tuna becomes tougher or something, but it was still really good.

Cooking on the other side.

It was absolutely delicious (we are still talking about it)! We were both pretty impressed with it, and really felt like it would be right at home sitting outside in southern France with a chilled glass of rosé. It helps, of course, that the tuna was really fresh. I think you could use any sort of meaty fish, like halibut or bluefish (Matt's suggestion), or anything that could stand up to a strong sauce. I think it would overpower a standard whitefish, and I'm not sure that it would go well with salmon.

A complete meal!

I made lemony sauteed brussels sprouts and a garlicky potato recipe I invented to go along with the tuna. The brussels sprouts are decidedly not-Mediterranean, but the lemon juice I added at the end brightens them up enough that they didn't seem out of place on the plate. I'm going to leave the recipe in French, but am happy to provide an English translation if you'd like.

Thon en sauce piquante 

Trésors de la Cuisine Provençale, par Robert Monetti

1 tranche de thon d'1kg
1 oignon
2 gousses d'ail
4 anchois de sel
100g de câpres
1 verre de vinaigre de vin (J'ai utilisée du vinaigre de vin rouge)
1 cuillière á soupe de concentré de tomate
sel, poivre de Cayenne, huile d'olive

Préparez une sauce piquante: lavez, videz, étêtez les anchois, retirez l'arête et rincez les filets à l'eau froide. Hachez l'oignon et l'ail (J'ai coupée l'oignon en fines tranches). Égouttez et essorez les câpres.

Dans une sauteuse, faites roussir l'oignon à l'huile, ajoutez l'ail, les filets d'anchois, les câpres, donnez quelques tours. Versez le vinaigre et faites réduire de moitié.

Ajoutez le concentré de tomate, 1/2 verre d'eau, mélangez. Placez la tranche préparée dans la sauteuse, salez légèrement, poivrez plus volontiers avec le Cayenne et laissez mijoter sur feu doux une bonne douzaine de minutes (ou plus, si vous voulez que votre thon bien cuit) en la retournant à mi-cuisson.

Pour 4 personnes (J'ai fait le plein recette de la sauce pour nous deux.)