{
  "slug": "vitello-tonnato",
  "url": "https://nonnario.com/recipes/vitello-tonnato/",
  "name": "Vitello tonnato",
  "english": "Cold veal in tuna sauce",
  "aka": [
    "vitel tonné",
    "vitel tonnè",
    "veal with tuna sauce"
  ],
  "summary": "Piedmont's cold veal: girello marinated in white wine, gently simmered, sliced thin once cold and covered with a sauce of tuna, anchovies, capers and hard-boiled eggs.",
  "essentials": [
    "Veal girello, marinated 12 hours in dry white wine, then simmered gently and lifted out at 63 °C at the centre, never past 65 °C: slightly pink.",
    "Sliced as thin as possible, and only once the meat is completely cold and firm.",
    "The sauce: hard-boiled eggs, tuna in oil, anchovies and capers, blended with the cooking broth until a little looser than mayonnaise.",
    "No mayonnaise in this version: the eggs and the broth bind the sauce. Mayonnaise came into fashion only in the 1980s."
  ],
  "diet": [
    "gluten-free"
  ],
  "region": {
    "slug": "piemonte",
    "name": "Piemonte",
    "url": "https://nonnario.com/regions/piemonte/"
  },
  "place": "Torino",
  "coords": [
    45.07,
    7.687
  ],
  "course": {
    "id": "antipasti",
    "it": "Antipasti",
    "en": "Starters"
  },
  "level": {
    "id": "tradition",
    "name": "Documented tradition",
    "it": "Tradizione documentata",
    "description": "A regional tradition documented in cookbooks and local practice, with no single official text.",
    "url": "https://nonnario.com/method/#level-tradition"
  },
  "status": "checked",
  "published": "2026-10-26",
  "checked": "2026-10-27",
  "cooked": null,
  "provenance": {
    "by": "Piedmontese tradition",
    "reference": "Compared across 7 sources, listed below; this page publishes the most widely recognised version.",
    "year": null
  },
  "sources": [
    {
      "label": "Pellegrino Artusi: ‘La scienza in cucina e l'arte di mangiar bene’, recipe 363, vitello tonnato (Project Gutenberg, 25th edition, Italian)",
      "url": "https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/59047"
    },
    {
      "label": "Turismo Torino e Provincia, Turin's tourism board: vitello tonnato (Italian)",
      "url": "https://turismotorino.org/it/visita/cosa-fare-e-vedere/enogastronomia/vitello-tonnato"
    },
    {
      "label": "City of Asti, VisitAsti tourism site: vitello tonnato and its origins (Italian)",
      "url": "https://visit.asti.it/it/gusto/prodotti-tipici/vitello-tonnato/"
    },
    {
      "label": "Dissapore: vitello tonnato, the typical Piedmontese recipe (Italian)",
      "url": "https://www.dissapore.com/ricette/vitello-tonnato/"
    },
    {
      "label": "Giallo Zafferano: vitello tonnato (Italian)",
      "url": "https://ricette.giallozafferano.it/Vitello-tonnato.html"
    },
    {
      "label": "Giallo Zafferano: vitello tonnato alla maniera antica, the roasted Turin version (Italian)",
      "url": "https://ricette.giallozafferano.it/Vitello-tonnato-alla-maniera-antica.html"
    },
    {
      "label": "La Cucina Italiana: vitello tonnato (Italian)",
      "url": "https://www.lacucinaitaliana.it/ricetta/secondi/vitello-tonnato/"
    }
  ],
  "story": [
    "Vitello tonnato, once called vitel tonné, is Piedmont's cold veal: thin slices of girello under a sauce of tuna, eggs, anchovies and capers. The name probably comes from the French tanné, ‘tanned’, and not from tonno, tuna. The dish is said to date from the eighteenth century, when it was a thrifty way with leftover meat, dressed with anchovies and oil. Tuna came later: it is in the recipe of Pellegrino Artusi, whose cookbook, first published in 1891, spread the dish across northern Italy. Mayonnaise only became the fashion in the 1980s.",
    "There is no official recipe. We compared seven sources and publish the most widely recognised version. Most of them agree on the essentials: a piece of girello cooked in water with aromatics, sliced thin once cold and covered with a sauce of tuna, anchovies and capers, usually with hard-boiled eggs. Some cooks first marinate the meat in white wine, as this page does, and the recipes that use a thermometer cook it only until the centre is just pink, never past 65 °C; others boil it for an hour and a half. We lift it out at 63 °C, so that it stays under 65 °C as it rests. Artusi's own version, with no eggs, plenty of olive oil and lemon, and the slices left in the sauce for a day or two, is among the variants."
  ],
  "serves": 6,
  "minutes": {
    "handsOn": 35,
    "cooking": 67,
    "resting": 930,
    "days": 2
  },
  "plan": "Start the evening before: 10 minutes to put the veal in its marinade, then 12 hours in the fridge. On the day allow about 5 hours, mostly waiting: about an hour to cook the meat, at least 3½ hours for it to cool and firm up (make the sauce meanwhile), and 15 minutes to slice and dress it. It serves 6 as a starter, or 4 as a main course.",
  "equipment": [
    "A bowl or container that holds the meat snugly, or a food bag",
    "A wide pot or oval casserole of about 5 l–6 l with a lid, in which the meat lies flat, and a skimmer",
    "Probe thermometer",
    "Fine sieve",
    "Small pan for the eggs",
    "Immersion blender and a tall jug, or a food processor",
    "Meat slicer, or a long, sharp knife with a smooth blade",
    "Serving platter and cling film"
  ],
  "ingredients": [
    {
      "group": "For the veal and its marinade",
      "items": [
        {
          "quantity": 800,
          "unit": "g",
          "item": "veal girello (eye of round)",
          "note": "in one piece; also sold as magatello",
          "text": "800 g veal girello (eye of round) (in one piece; also sold as magatello)",
          "recipe": null
        },
        {
          "quantity": 400,
          "unit": "ml",
          "item": "dry white wine",
          "note": "two glasses, about 400 ml; a good wine, as it flavours the meat",
          "text": "400 ml dry white wine (two glasses, about 400 ml; a good wine, as it flavours the meat)",
          "recipe": null
        },
        {
          "quantity": 1,
          "unit": "pc",
          "item": "celery stalk",
          "note": null,
          "text": "1 celery stalk",
          "recipe": null
        },
        {
          "quantity": 1,
          "unit": "pc",
          "item": "carrot",
          "note": null,
          "text": "1 carrot",
          "recipe": null
        },
        {
          "quantity": 1,
          "unit": "pc",
          "item": "onion",
          "note": null,
          "text": "1 onion",
          "recipe": null
        },
        {
          "quantity": 1,
          "unit": "clove",
          "item": "garlic",
          "note": null,
          "text": "1 clove garlic",
          "recipe": null
        },
        {
          "quantity": 1,
          "unit": "pc",
          "item": "bay leaf",
          "note": null,
          "text": "1 bay leaf",
          "recipe": null
        },
        {
          "quantity": 3,
          "unit": "pc",
          "item": "whole cloves",
          "note": null,
          "text": "3 whole cloves",
          "recipe": null
        },
        {
          "quantity": 0.5,
          "unit": "tsp",
          "item": "black peppercorns",
          "note": null,
          "text": "½ tsp black peppercorns",
          "recipe": null
        },
        {
          "quantity": 2,
          "unit": "pinch",
          "item": "fine salt",
          "note": null,
          "text": "2 pinches fine salt",
          "recipe": null
        },
        {
          "quantity": 2,
          "unit": "l",
          "item": "water",
          "note": null,
          "text": "2 l water",
          "recipe": null
        }
      ]
    },
    {
      "group": "For the tuna sauce",
      "items": [
        {
          "quantity": 2,
          "unit": "pc",
          "item": "eggs",
          "note": null,
          "text": "2 eggs",
          "recipe": null
        },
        {
          "quantity": 100,
          "unit": "g",
          "item": "tuna in oil",
          "note": "drained weight",
          "text": "100 g tuna in oil (drained weight)",
          "recipe": null
        },
        {
          "quantity": 3,
          "unit": "pc",
          "item": "anchovy fillets in oil",
          "note": null,
          "text": "3 anchovy fillets in oil",
          "recipe": null
        },
        {
          "quantity": 5,
          "unit": "g",
          "item": "capers in vinegar",
          "note": "drained; or salted capers, rinsed under running water",
          "text": "5 g capers in vinegar (drained; or salted capers, rinsed under running water)",
          "recipe": null
        },
        {
          "quantity": 150,
          "unit": "ml",
          "item": "cooking water from the meat, strained",
          "note": "the broth the meat cooked in; more if needed",
          "text": "150 ml cooking water from the meat, strained (the broth the meat cooked in; more if needed)",
          "recipe": null
        }
      ]
    },
    {
      "group": "To finish",
      "items": [
        {
          "quantity": null,
          "unit": null,
          "item": "capers or caper berries",
          "note": "a few, to decorate",
          "text": "capers or caper berries (a few, to decorate)",
          "recipe": null
        }
      ]
    }
  ],
  "method": [
    {
      "phase": "The day before: the marinade",
      "intro": null,
      "steps": [
        {
          "n": 1,
          "url": "https://nonnario.com/recipes/vitello-tonnato/#step-1",
          "title": "Prepare the vegetables and the meat",
          "text": "Peel the carrot, the onion and the garlic, pull the strings from the celery, and cut the vegetables into chunks. Trim the fat and gristle from the surface of the meat, keeping it in one piece.",
          "kind": "active",
          "minutes": 10,
          "celsius": null,
          "heat": null,
          "official": false,
          "check": null,
          "tips": []
        },
        {
          "n": 2,
          "url": "https://nonnario.com/recipes/vitello-tonnato/#step-2",
          "title": "Marinate for 12 hours",
          "text": "Put the meat in a bowl or container that holds it snugly, with the vegetables, the bay leaf, the salt, the cloves and the peppercorns. Pour in the wine to cover, cover the container and leave it in the fridge for 12 hours.",
          "kind": "rest",
          "minutes": 720,
          "celsius": null,
          "heat": null,
          "official": false,
          "check": null,
          "tips": [
            "If the wine does not cover the meat, turn it once halfway through. A food bag with the air pressed out keeps it covered with less wine."
          ]
        }
      ]
    },
    {
      "phase": "On the day: cooking the veal",
      "intro": null,
      "steps": [
        {
          "n": 3,
          "url": "https://nonnario.com/recipes/vitello-tonnato/#step-3",
          "title": "Bring it to the boil from cold, skimming",
          "text": "Lift out the meat and strain the marinade, keeping the vegetables and spices. Put the meat, the vegetables and spices, the strained wine and 2 l of cold water in the pot. If the liquid does not cover the meat, add cold water until it does. Bring it to the boil, and as it heats, skim off the foam that rises.",
          "kind": "passive",
          "minutes": [
            15,
            20
          ],
          "celsius": null,
          "heat": "medium-high",
          "official": false,
          "check": "The liquid covers the meat, it boils, and no more foam rises.",
          "tips": []
        },
        {
          "n": 4,
          "url": "https://nonnario.com/recipes/vitello-tonnato/#step-4",
          "title": "Simmer gently, covered, until just pink",
          "text": "Lower the heat so the liquid barely simmers, put the lid on and cook for about 45 minutes. From 35 minutes on, check the centre of the thickest part with a probe thermometer, and lift it out of the pot onto a plate as soon as it reads 63 °C. Left in the hot broth it keeps cooking, and even on the plate the centre still rises a little.",
          "kind": "passive",
          "minutes": [
            40,
            45
          ],
          "celsius": 63,
          "heat": "low, a bare simmer",
          "official": false,
          "check": "63 °C at the centre when you lift it out; as it rests it should not pass 65 °C, and the meat stays slightly pink inside.",
          "tips": [
            "A bigger piece takes longer, about 30 minutes for every 500 g: go by the thermometer, not the clock."
          ]
        },
        {
          "n": 5,
          "url": "https://nonnario.com/recipes/vitello-tonnato/#step-5",
          "title": "Strain the broth",
          "text": "Strain the broth through a fine sieve and keep about 150 ml of it for the sauce.",
          "kind": "active",
          "minutes": 5,
          "celsius": null,
          "heat": null,
          "official": false,
          "check": null,
          "tips": [
            "Keep the rest of the broth for a risotto, as Artusi advises."
          ]
        },
        {
          "n": 6,
          "url": "https://nonnario.com/recipes/vitello-tonnato/#step-6",
          "title": "Cool, then chill until firm",
          "text": "Leave the meat on the plate for about 30 minutes, until it stops steaming, then wrap it in cling film and put it in the fridge for at least 3 hours, or overnight. It must be completely cold before you slice it, so that it is firm. Make the sauce meanwhile.",
          "kind": "rest",
          "minutes": 210,
          "celsius": null,
          "heat": null,
          "official": false,
          "check": "Cold right through and firm to the touch.",
          "tips": []
        }
      ]
    },
    {
      "phase": "The tuna sauce",
      "intro": null,
      "steps": [
        {
          "n": 7,
          "url": "https://nonnario.com/recipes/vitello-tonnato/#step-7",
          "title": "Hard-boil the eggs",
          "text": "Put the eggs in a small pan with plenty of cold water and bring it to the boil. From the moment it boils, cook them for 9 minutes, then drain them and cool them under cold running water. Peel them and cut them into quarters.",
          "kind": "passive",
          "minutes": [
            12,
            15
          ],
          "celsius": null,
          "heat": null,
          "official": false,
          "check": "The yolk is firm right through.",
          "tips": []
        },
        {
          "n": 8,
          "url": "https://nonnario.com/recipes/vitello-tonnato/#step-8",
          "title": "Blend the sauce",
          "text": "Put the eggs, the drained tuna, the anchovy fillets and the drained capers in a tall jug. Blend with an immersion blender (or in a food processor), adding the broth a little at a time, and more if needed, until the sauce is smooth and just a little more fluid than mayonnaise. Cover it and keep it in the fridge until you serve.",
          "kind": "active",
          "minutes": 5,
          "celsius": null,
          "heat": null,
          "official": false,
          "check": "Smooth, with no flakes of tuna left, and it flows slowly off a spoon.",
          "tips": [
            "For a sharper sauce, add a tablespoon of wine vinegar or lemon juice. Usually the capers and the wine in the broth make it sharp enough."
          ]
        }
      ]
    },
    {
      "phase": "Slicing and serving",
      "intro": null,
      "steps": [
        {
          "n": 9,
          "url": "https://nonnario.com/recipes/vitello-tonnato/#step-9",
          "title": "Slice it thin",
          "text": "Unwrap the cold meat and slice it across the grain as thin as you can, ideally with a meat slicer, otherwise with a long, sharp knife with a smooth blade.",
          "kind": "active",
          "minutes": 10,
          "celsius": null,
          "heat": null,
          "official": false,
          "check": "Thin, even slices that hold together.",
          "tips": []
        },
        {
          "n": 10,
          "url": "https://nonnario.com/recipes/vitello-tonnato/#step-10",
          "title": "Dress and serve",
          "text": "Lay the slices on a serving platter, cover them with the sauce and decorate with a few capers or caper berries, some whole and some halved. Serve cool.",
          "kind": "active",
          "minutes": 5,
          "celsius": null,
          "heat": null,
          "official": false,
          "check": null,
          "tips": []
        }
      ]
    }
  ],
  "quick": [
    "The day before, marinate 800 g of trimmed veal girello for 12 hours in the fridge with the cut vegetables, a bay leaf, cloves, peppercorns, salt and two glasses of dry white wine.",
    "Put the meat, the vegetables and spices, the strained wine and 2 l of cold water in a pot and bring to the boil, skimming.",
    "Cover and simmer very gently for about 45 minutes; lift the meat out when the centre reaches 63 °C, so that it never passes 65 °C.",
    "Strain the broth, keeping about 150 ml, and let the meat cool, then chill it until completely cold and firm.",
    "Blend 2 hard-boiled eggs, 100 g of tuna in oil, 3 anchovy fillets and 5 g of capers with the broth into a smooth sauce, a little looser than mayonnaise.",
    "Slice the cold veal as thin as you can, lay it on a platter, cover with the sauce and decorate with capers."
  ],
  "when": {
    "text": "A summer dish, served cool, as an antipasto or as a second course.",
    "source": {
      "label": "City of Asti, VisitAsti tourism site: vitello tonnato and its origins (Italian)",
      "url": "https://visit.asti.it/it/gusto/prodotti-tipici/vitello-tonnato/"
    }
  },
  "keeps": {
    "text": "Covered with cling film, it keeps 1–2 days at most in the fridge; better to keep the sauce apart. Do not freeze it. The leftover broth is good for a risotto.",
    "source": {
      "label": "Giallo Zafferano: vitello tonnato (Italian)",
      "url": "https://ricette.giallozafferano.it/Vitello-tonnato.html"
    }
  },
  "variants": [
    {
      "name": "With oil and lemon, no eggs",
      "text": "Pellegrino Artusi's recipe 363: 1 kg of milk-fed veal from the leg or rump, larded with two anchovies, tied and put into generously salted boiling water with a quarter onion stuck with two cloves, a bay leaf, celery, carrot and parsley, and boiled for an hour and a half. Once cold it is sliced thin and left for a day or two in a sauce of 100 g of tuna in oil and two anchovies, sieved with plenty of olive oil and the juice of a lemon or more, finished with a handful of capers. Served with lemon wedges.",
      "source": {
        "label": "Pellegrino Artusi: ‘La scienza in cucina e l'arte di mangiar bene’, recipe 363, vitello tonnato (Project Gutenberg, 25th edition, Italian)",
        "url": "https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/59047"
      },
      "recipe": null
    },
    {
      "name": "With sage and gherkins",
      "text": "A version for eight: 1 kg of girello marinated for about 24 hours in white wine with bay, cloves, sage and celery, then boiled in the strained wine and water for an hour and a half, with six salted anchovies added for the last 30 minutes. The sauce blends 300 g of tuna with the yolks of three hard-boiled eggs, capers, lemon juice, the cooked anchovies, half a glass of olive oil and a spoonful of vinegar, loosened with two small ladles of broth; garnished with capers and gherkins.",
      "source": {
        "label": "La Cucina Italiana: vitello tonnato (Italian)",
        "url": "https://www.lacucinaitaliana.it/ricetta/secondi/vitello-tonnato/"
      },
      "recipe": null
    },
    {
      "name": "Alla maniera antica, roasted",
      "text": "An old-fashioned Turin version: the girello is browned, then cooked with the tuna, anchovies and capers, splashed with white wine and milk, and roasted at 180 °C for 7–8 minutes a side. The pan juices are blended with hard-boiled eggs, olive oil, vegetable broth and Marsala, and a teaspoon of this cream goes on each slice, folded into a half-moon, so that every mouthful gets its share of sauce.",
      "source": {
        "label": "Giallo Zafferano: vitello tonnato alla maniera antica, the roasted Turin version (Italian)",
        "url": "https://ricette.giallozafferano.it/Vitello-tonnato-alla-maniera-antica.html"
      },
      "recipe": null
    },
    {
      "name": "With mayonnaise",
      "text": "Some versions bind the sauce with mayonnaise instead of the hard-boiled eggs.",
      "source": {
        "label": "Giallo Zafferano: vitello tonnato (Italian)",
        "url": "https://ricette.giallozafferano.it/Vitello-tonnato.html"
      },
      "recipe": null
    }
  ],
  "variantOf": [],
  "usedIn": [],
  "mistakes": [
    "Letting the centre of the meat go past 65 °C: it turns grey and dry, where it should be tender and slightly pink.",
    "Slicing it before it is completely cold: the meat is not yet firm and will not cut thin.",
    "A sauce as thick as mayonnaise: loosen it with broth until it is just a little more fluid."
  ],
  "abroad": [
    "Girello, also called magatello, is a long, lean muscle of the leg: eye of round in the US; in Britain it is part of the silverside.",
    "Salted capers can stand in for capers in vinegar: rinse them under running water first.",
    "No meat slicer? Chill the meat well and use your longest, sharpest knife with a smooth blade."
  ],
  "image": "https://nonnario.com/assets/img/vitello-tonnato.jpg",
  "video": null,
  "versions": {
    "page": "https://nonnario.com/recipes/vitello-tonnato/",
    "markdown": "https://nonnario.com/recipes/vitello-tonnato.md",
    "json": "https://nonnario.com/recipes/vitello-tonnato.json"
  },
  "cite": "Cite the recipe's page and the month its sources were checked; for the official text itself, cite the document listed under its sources."
}