I'm including this recipe in its original form - a letter to the Foodwine list from Jennifer Panek - I have made this myself several times, and it is really good, plus the letter is fun to read - she's right - Maiale Tonnato sounds a lot better than "boiled pork with pureed tuna sauce."
As it's finally begun to swelter here in Boston (after the coldest,wettest June and July of the four summers I've been here), I have the pleasure of thinking of cold dinners with minimal time in the kitchen. And so I made my first maiale tonnato (classically "vitello tonnato", but pork, "maiale", is cheaper and very good) of the summer. I thought I'd share the recipe with the list because it's so good, because I've never encountered this dish anywhere outside of Italy (North American restaurants seem to shun it), and because it's something that the recipe for sounds, well, unappetizing. I'd seen it in my Italian cookbook for years and ignored it. Cold boiled pork covered in pureed tuna sounded nasty, to tell the truth. Then I tried it at my cousin's house in Italy, and was hooked. I once set a group of guests guessing as to the contents of the sauce. Nobody guessed that it was based on tuna.
This is roughly the recipe in Biba Caggiano's "Modern Italian Cooking", which is her sister's variation on the classic sauce. The classic uses a few less pickled vegetables, but this one tastes pretty fine:
Use a good, thick piece of pork loin (I find about 1.5 lbs makes about four servings). Half fill with water a pot big enough to hold the pork, and bring to a boil. When boiling, add the pork, a chopped carrot, a sliced onion, a celery stalk, and a bay leaf. Top up the pot with white wine until the liquid completely covers the meat (about half a bottle). Let cook at a VERY low simmer for about 1.5-2 hours, until pork is done. Cool and store the meat in the liquid in the fridge. (The low simmering and keeping it in the liquid keeps it moist and tender.) I usually cook the meat the day before I want to eat it.
For the sauce, put in a blender:
1 6oz tin of imported tuna in olive oil (use an "Italian" brand, like Genova or Star--I'd say don't even bother with other kinds of tuna)
3 anchovy fillets
3 tbs capers
4-5 small pickled onions
5-6 cornichons, or equal amount of non-sweet pickles
3-4 slices of canned roasted pimiento
juice of a lemon
1/3 cup of olive oil
Puree until smooth. You should have a medium-thick sauce. Biba says to thin it with pork broth, but I've never found this necessary.
Slice the cold pork loin thinly. Spread some of the sauce on the bottom of a serving dish, and arrange a layer of pork slices over it. Make layers of sauce and pork until both are used up--the top should be sauce. Decorate the top with capers, and chill for a few hours or overnight (it keeps well for several days).
Take it out of the fridge, slice some bread, make a salad, uncork some cold white wine. Dinner. I promise you that this is truly good, far, far more than the sum of its parts (right, Kyle?). Just call it by its Italian name to whomever you're serving it to. Dan took the leftovers for lunch today and grossed out his co-workers by explaining in plain English what it was.