An Italian vacation without leaving your house
A recipe from the Big Night cookbook!
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I spent much of 2023 working on an incredibly fun project: the Big Night cookbook! Now available wherever books are sold! Katherine Lewin, author of the book and owner of Big Night (the shop!) brought me on as the recipe developer. The book is her guide to dinner, parties, and dinner parties, aka “Big Nights.” You know how satisfied and taken care of you feel at the end of a really great restaurant meal? You can do that at home too!
A Big Night can be a glam spread of warm anchovy dip for bitter veg (page 270) and no-special-pot-required fondue (page 269) with a dark chocolate sheet cake (page 274) for dessert; but a Big Night can *also* be a huge mixing bowl of chopped salad (page 162) and an ordered pizza. Your best friend’s birthday meal you’ve been planning for months? A last-minute hang on a Tuesday evening? Steakhouse date, but in your kitchen? We have a Big Night for that. (Pages 71, 165, and 229 respectively.)
Which brings me to today’s recipe, Tonnato with Tomatoes (page 138). It’s part of “an Italian vacation without leaving your house” menu—extremely a Nickel & Dine way to throw a party, if I may say so. Drizzle thick slices of juicy tomato with tonnato, aka lemony tuna-anchovy-mayo sauce (which I assure you is greater than the sum of its parts), and you’re ready to go. I like to mop up everything with sourdough toast and/or assemble it over a can or two of of white beans to make it a standalone meal—you do what you want.
In a few weeks—or potentially right now, depending on where you live or when you stumble upon this post—the tomatoes are bound to be stunning. I won’t lie and say heirloom tomatoes are cheap, but when in season they’re far more affordable than they are the rest of the year. I think good summer tomatoes from the farmers market are a wonderful way to spend money; but for what it’s worth, this dish is *almost* as good with all supermarket Campari and cherry tomatoes, which do tend to be cheaper and available year-round.
The rest of this summer vacation-y Big Night involves clam and corn pasta (page 141), a dressed up burrata (page 137) and lemon granita (page 147). For those, you’ll have to buy the book! Want dessert faster but don’t have the book yet? Imbibe published the Tre Latti Cake (page 65), which is what happens when you think about tres leches through the lens of tiramisu.
And Fishwife published Artichoke Dip—For Dinner (page 186)1. I made a little reel for it, which maybe you haven’t seen yet! Another wallet-friendly party idea: This dip plus Big Night Party Mix (page 180, quite possibly my favorite recipe in the book—it has cereal! It has potato chips! It has chili crisp!!) and a DIY Spaghett station (page 181, how convenient!). Exactly how I want spend time and money on a summer night. Want to come over?
Tonnato with Tomatoes
Serves 8 to 12 as a side; 4 as a main (with toast)
Ingredients
2 pounds mixed heirloom tomatoes, thinly sliced
1 1⁄2 pounds small tomatoes, such as Campari or cherry tomatoes2, halved
Kosher salt
1 to 2 lemons
1 garlic clove, peeled
1 (5- to 7-ounce) tin or jar oil-packed tuna
4 oil-packed anchovy fillets
1⁄2 cup mayonnaise, plus more as needed
2 tablespoons Dijon mustard
2 tablespoons brined capers, drained
Freshly ground black pepper
Extra-virgin olive oil, for serving
Flaky sea salt, for serving
Chile flakes, for serving (optional)
Method
Line a plate with paper towels or a kitchen towel and arrange the tomatoes on top. Season them all over with salt and set aside to drain.
Meanwhile, zest and juice the lemons. You should have 2 tablespoons of zest and at least 1⁄4 cup of juice. Transfer the zest and 3 tablespoons of the juice to a blender or food processor, then grate the garlic into the blender. Drain the tuna and anchovies, but don’t toss the oil. Add the tuna, anchovies, mayonnaise, mustard, capers, and a few good grinds of pepper to the blender. Blend the mixture on medium speed until very smooth, a minute or less. With the blender running, slowly drizzle in 2 tablespoons of the reserved tuna or anchovy oil. Taste the tonnato and season with more lemon juice and salt as needed.
Arrange the tomatoes on a serving platter and pour over as much tonnato as you’d like (I like a lot of tonnato). Drizzle with olive oil, and sprinkle with a bit of flaky salt, more pepper, and chile flakes (if using). Serve immediately.
Reprinted with permission from Big Night: Dinners, Parties & Dinner Parties © 2024 by Katherine Lewin. Published by Union Square & Co. Photo by Emma Fishman.
The budget bitch in me feels it’s important to tell you that you don’t have to use two $12 tins of trout to make this dip—during the development process I tested a bunch of brands, including $4 oil-packed tins (you’ll probably need two) and $8 vacuum-sealed packs of fillets (typically containing the full amount you need). All are delicious!
Small heirlooms will also work here!