2021 Vuelta - Stage 16: Laredo to Santa Cruz de Bezana
The riders are now way up in northern Spain, traveling a flat coastal route today all within Cantabria. The end point of today’s stage is also the location of the Ruta del Pincho de Tomate, or Route of the Skewered Tomato! This is a competition, in conjunction with the celebration of the tomatoes of the region, where several local restaurants compete against one another for a week and votes are taken in the town to crown the big winner. There is also a huge tomato festival during this time period as well. I thought, what better way to celebrate the stage and the town by coming up with my own tomato skewer.
I decided to go with a tuna salad skewer, roughly based off of a meal my mother would prepare in the summers of my youth. It has all of the main staples: tomato, cucumber, chickpeas, roasted red pepper, tomato, olive and tuna. I oven-roasted the tomatoes while I seared some lovely yellowfin tuna I picked up at Eastern Market, and pitted some Castelvetrano olives and prepared the other items. I skewered it all, and drizzled with some olive oil, seasoned it with sea salt and pepper and gave a drizzle of olive oil, topping it all off with some thyme and smoked paprika. You can see how my skewer stood up to this year’s competition.
Tuna Salad Skewer
Cherry tomatoes
Extra-virgin olive oil
Thyme
Castelvetrano green olives
Shallot
English cucumber
Roasted red peppers
Canned chickpeas
Fresh yellowfin tuna steak
Maldon sea salt
Smoked paprika
Preheat your oven to 450 degrees. Place your tomatoes on a foil-lined baking sheet, drizzle with olive oil and toss to coat. Top with some sea salt and thyme. Roast in the oven for about 20 minutes. Set aside to cool.
Meanwhile, pit your olives (or use pitted) by lightly smashing the olive and removing the pit. Dice the shallot, cucumber, and red peppers. Drain and rinse the beans. Reserve all items for skewer prep.
Dry your tuna steak(s) with paper towels and season with sea salt and freshly cracked black pepper. Heat 2 tbsp of olive oil in a cast-iron (or nonstick) skillet over high heat. Just when the oil begins to smoke, place the tuna into the pan and sear for 30 seconds. Flip and sear on the other side for an additional 30 seconds and remove from the skillet. Dice the tuna into cubes.
Using a skewer, thread on the tuna, followed by olive, pepper, cucumber, shallot and ending with tomato. Repeat with remaining ingredients. Season them all with more sea salt and black pepper. Drizzle with extra-virgin olive oil. Sprinkle on some fresh thyme leaves and small pinches of smoked paprika. Serve. ______________________________ Copyright 2021, Brendan McCann, All Rights Reserved.
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