West Country pork tonnato recipe
This is a porky version of the classic Italian dish vitello tonnato, which is an odd-sounding but quite delicious recipe. The combination of cold veal and tinned-tuna mayonnaise puzzled me at first but I’ve had lots of refined versions of it over the years and now totally buy into it.
However, I find that pork has more flavour generally than veal, and UK veal is not so easy to find, so my West Country version makes that swap. And instead of tuna in the sauce I’ve used mackerel, topped by my Hix Smokin’ House Cornish anchovies, which gives the dish a very similar flavour just with a local twist. I cook the mackerel in oil – a method I use whenever I have a good haul, keeping it in sterilised Kilner jars. You might like to cook a couple of mackerel in the oil and use the excess for a salad or sandwiches.
Timings
Prep time: 10 minutes, plus 1 hour chilling time
Cook time: 20 minutes
Serves
Four
Ingredients
1 or 2 fillets of pork weighing about 600g
150ml rapeseed or olive oil, or as needed
1 small mackerel, filleted and deboned
? tsp fennel seeds
a couple sprigs of thyme
1 bay leaf
100g good-quality mayonnaise
8 anchovy fillets, tinned or smoked, halved lengthways
2-3 tbsp capers, rinsed
a couple sprigs of parsley, finely sliced
Method
1. Preheat the oven to 200C/180C fan/gas mark 6.
2. Season the pork fillets. Heat half a tablespoon of the rapeseed oil in an ovenproof frying pan and colour the fillets on all sides, then transfer the pan to the oven to continue cooking for about 10-15 minutes, keeping the pork a little pink. Remove from the oven and leave to cool, then refrigerate for about an hour.
3. Meanwhile, place the mackerel fillets in a pan, cover with the remaining rapeseed oil, add the fennel seeds, thyme sprigs and bay leaf and season well. Add a little more oil if it’s not quite covering your fish.
4. Bring to a simmer, then turn off the heat and cover with a lid; the mackerel will cook in the hot oil as it cools.
5. Once cool, take the mackerel out of the oil and remove the skin. Place the flesh in a liquidiser with the mayonnaise and a couple of tablespoons of the cooking oil and blend until smooth.
6. The sauce should be a spooning consistency so if it’s not, add a little water and blend again.
7. To serve, slice the pork thinly and arrange on serving plates, overlapping the slices to cover the plate. Spoon the sauce over the pork. Arrange the anchovies on top, then scatter over the capers and parsley to finish.