Name: Veal or Chicken with Tuna Dressing (Vitello o Capone Tonnato)
Yield: Serves 6
Cuisine: Italian
Ingredients: 2 small onions, chopped; 3 celery sticks, chopped; 2 bay leaves; 2 carrots, chopped; 4 black peppercorns; a sprig of thyme; 2 egg yolks; a pinch of salt; 300 ml/½ pint olive oil; 2 teaspoons Dijon mustard; 8 anchovies, chopped, plus a few extra to decorate; 125 g/4½ oz good-quality tuna in oil; juice of ½ lemon; 1 tablespoon capers, plus a few extra to decorate, soaked in cold water for 30 minutes and then squeezed; salt and freshly ground black pepper; 1 large chicken, or 1 topside of veal weighing 1.5 kg/3¼ lb, trimmed of fat and tied; 1 head garlic, cloves separated and chopped

Preparation info

Serves
6

Difficulty
Medium

Appears in

The Eagle Cookbook

By David Eyre

Published 2009

About

There are as many recipes for vitello tonnato as there are Italian chefs. This one offers a nod to cookery writer Marcella Hazan. It is the perfect party dish, as all the preparation can be done well in advance.

Capons are castrated male chickens – a process that was practised for centuries to obtain a heavier, plumper bird. When Paris welcomed Catherine de Medici in 1549, the sumptuous