Pilaf rice with fresh tuna and herbs

Take a classic Italian family, made of parents, grandparents, brothers and sisters … or take for example my family: it is almost impossible to find yourself sitting alone at the table for lunch or dinner. We have dinner sitting all together commenting on the day, lunch is meant to be in a messy kitchen with my grandma or mum, or sometimes with Claudia when she’s not at university. Holidays are celebrated mainly at the table, sitting one next to the other, packed like sardines.

Then everything changed, the pace of work and my schedule, and I began to appreciate those lunches limited to a plate, a fork, a knife and a glass of water, those lunches where you take all the time you need to cook for a very important person, yourself.

The usual and so reassuring talks, pass me the cheese, may I have the last potato or mum is there still yoghurt in the fridge, are the soundtrack of the most appreciated moments of family life, but I must admit that even a meal by yourself has its charm, being it out in the sun stunned by the silence of your thoughts or curled on the couch watching the latest episode of Grey’s Anatomy.

This is one of my private lunches, where I used a drop of balsamic vinegar, a slice of fresh tuna, the just-picked herbs from the garden and my most precious cast iron pot to make a kind of pilaf rice on the stove instead of in the oven. And, believe me, it turned out stunning.

As you can see, even a lunch alone has its good points: a bit of experimentation, the luxury of balsamic vinegar, the lightness of the rice, the salty tang of the tuna, the crunchy flakes of Maldon salt and my favourite herb, the sorrel.

I love fresh tuna, do you? These are other recipes to enjoy this tasteful fish:

• Tuna and avocado skewers, so summer like!
• Jaden’s Sesame Seared Tuna with Lime Ginger Vinaigrette, I can already taste the kick of ginger with tuna…
• Fuji Mama’s Tuna Tataki Summer Rolls, unusual way to eat tuna in Vietnamese summer rolls.

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