Vitello Tonnato

Vitello tonnato is thin-sliced cold roast veal draped in a creamy tuna-and-caper sauce. It's Piedmont's cold starter, and the sauce is the entire reason the dish exists — it tastes nothing like a standard mayonnaise, built instead around tinned tuna and anchovy for a savoury, almost briny depth.

What it actually is

A lean cut of veal roasts or poaches gently until just cooked through, then chills completely and slices very thin — the chilling is what makes clean, even slices possible. The sauce blends tuna, anchovy and capers into a mayonnaise base until smooth, giving it a savoury, faintly briny depth well beyond a plain egg-and-oil mayonnaise. The sauce coats the veal slices generously, sometimes with a few whole capers scattered over the top.

The veal has to be served cold, sliced thin. A warm or thickly cut piece changes the texture entirely — the dish depends on thin, tender slices that let the tuna sauce coat each one evenly rather than sitting on top of a thick cut.

How it's served

• Cold, veal thinly sliced and fully coated in the tuna sauce.
• As a starter, especially in summer, since it's served entirely chilled.
• Garnished simply, capers or parsley, without anything that competes with the sauce.

Writing it on a menu

• Flag egg from the mayonnaise and fish from the tuna and anchovy.
• Say that it's served cold, since a guest unfamiliar with the dish might expect a hot veal course.
• Note that the sauce contains fish, since a guest reading "veal" alone might not expect it.
• Mention if you make the mayonnaise base in-house, since a fresh emulsion is a real point of craft.