Tuna “abbuttunatu” with its sauce and caper purée
Abbuttunatu stands for “filling” according to Palermitan tradition. Following their conquest of Sicily, the Arabs moved the longtime seat of power – that had by ancient customs always been Syracuse – to Palermo.
The tuna is stuffed with a filling of Ragusan cheese, breadcrumbs seasoned with aromatics, olive oil, parsley and crisp onion. At the moment of serving, a beef sauce is gently poured over the top.
Note
«I want to emphasize that the red garlic from Nubia that I use for this dish is sweetened in milk and added in moderation. Traditionally, the tuna is cooked in tomato – a low and slow braise – however in this case, I serve two cuts: the belly, grilled over the barbecue, and a filet just barely seared served nearly raw and lacquered (“ingilluppato” in dialect) in a vegetable-based barbecue sauce».
The long reign of the Arabs in Sicily resurrected agriculture and gifted many things: rice, sugar, cotton, citrus, the red mulberry, jasmine, anise, sesame, cloves, the invention of pasta, and more…