This is a lovely starter for lazy days when you’re eating outdoors. I like to dibble crudités (especially sweet batons of carrot) and good bread in this tuna dip. It’s also very good spread on toast or crostini, and, cold or warmed through, makes a good strong sauce to dollop on bland cooked fish.
Apologies for the horrendous photo – by the time I realised how rubbish this looked, the bowl had been licked clean, so there was nothing to photograph.
To serve two as a starter with crudités and bread, you’ll need:
1 small can tuna (in oil, brine or spring water), drained
2 anchovies
2 teaspoons Marsala
1 tablespoon sherry vinegar
1 heaped teaspoon grainy Dijon mustard
½ teaspoon fennel seed
1 tablespoon finely chopped oregano
½ teaspoon finely chopped rosemary
1 teaspoon finely chopped sage
1 teaspoon thyme
1 tablespoon finely chopped basil
1 tablespoon finely chopped flat-leaf parsley
1 tablespoon finely chopped mint
1 small clove of garlic, crushed
3 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
½ teaspoon honey
Bash the fennel seed lightly in a pestle and mortar, and chop the herbs. Chop the anchovies very finely. Put all the ingredients in a mixing bowl and mix well until the dip ingredients all come together to form a rough paste. Add a little more olive oil if you prefer a looser texture, and taste for seasoning. Serve chilled as a dip or crostini topping, or warm through in a small saucepan to use as a sauce.
Huh, I did a “Mediterranean tuna salad” this afternoon. “Did” meaning prepared for my own lunch and managed to take a couple pictures along the way. I supposes that’s the best part of a food blog. It’s really pretty easy to snap a few pictures of your lunch and write about it as you digest your food. Anyway, I promise I am not a copy cat, as we say.
Heh! There’s synchronicity in this food blogging thing – you’ll find that there are days when every food blogger on the planet independently has the idea to do something alarming with a duck. Clearly a yearning for tuna is sweeping the interwebs today.
It’s worst later in August, when everyone and their aunt (including me) will start posting tomato recipes.
You can fix this problem by reading blogs on the other side of the world 😉
No tuna ’round these parts for a bit, although the Great Annual Broad Bean Onslaught is imminent …