Tuna with Olive Sauce, Cannelini Beans, and Fresh Tomatoes!
Okay, if you’re keeping up, you know that fish and I had a falling out when the gallbladder and I parted ways, and it’s taken me a LONG time to want to eat fish again. We had to run an errand on Sunday afternoon (go pick up the new TV to replace our living room TV that died suddenly in the middle of trying to Netflix binge on Friday night; RIP, Panasonic plasma screen) and while we were in the car I suggested Jarrod figure out what he wanted to have for dinner, since once again I had planned nothing. Oops.
He says “I think I want tuna” and in my head my voice immediately said “Eww” but I went along with it. We settled on the tuna steaks with olive sauce, and I am not sorry about it! Our Kroger has a pretty decent fish counter. Jarrod went to pick up some of the meal’s necessities, and the Fish Guy at Kroger was kind enough to go back and cut fresh pieces for him instead of what had been sitting in the case all day. Nice!
I followed the directions to the letter, and the steaks were cooked perfectly to my liking. If you like your tuna more rare in the middle, definitely don’t leave them in the sauce longer than a minute or two like she says. I don’t like mine quite that rare, so I left them in a little bit longer. The fish was really good! Very nice texture, doesn’t taste “fishy” at all, and the sauce was fantastic. This was the first time I’ve ever seen a recipe use chopped nuts to thicken a sauce and it worked perfectly! The flavors really went well with the tuna. We used Kalamata olives as that is the only brined olive they had, but it worked. It was also super easy to put together. If you don’t cook a lot of fish, it happens FAST and it’s easy to overcook it (as most people in our neck of the woods like to eat things anyway, ugh. STEAK SHOULDN’T BE GRAY!) so prep everything first and be ready to roll.
The beans could not have been tastier or easier. Open the can, drain and rinse the beans, added a little S&P, a pinch of the lemon zest and a couple of squeezes of lemon juice from the lemon I was using for the sauce, and a drizzle of olive oil. That’s it. No cooking, no stress, no problem! And they were delicious with the fish! The other side dish was fresh sliced tomato with a little sprinkle of kosher salt, because it’s July and I will eat tomatoes until I am sick of them!
That really is one of my favorite parts of summer, all the fresh produce and how lovely everything is when it’s fresh and not grocery-store/hot house grown who-knows-where-and-with-what. I hope you’re able to enjoy something fresh and delicious!
Cheers! ~ Jen
