Tuna steaks with warm olive and parsley sauce

The salmon and avocado timbale was our first course last night. Here is the second course - tuna steaks with  a warm olive and parsley sauce.

Two fish courses in a row, but that's what I felt like eating, so we'll just go with it.

The little people had the salmon and avocado for their dinner, but they were very interested in this dish so they kept sneaking back to the table for a little taste!

Olives are just about a staple food in our house. The little people have been eating them since they were very small; probably because of the copious amounts that I ate while pregnant!

We are not discriminatory with our olive consumption; black or green are both great. I prefer to eat big, juicy green olives with a cheese platter or even in a toasted sandwich. Black olives are prefect for sauces and slow-cooked dishes.

For this sauce, I used black olives, and mixed it with the parsley pesto I made a few weeks ago along with a few other ingredients. The result was a tart and salty sauce that was wonderful with the tuna. I served it with some freshly steamed green beans. Because the sauce was so flavoursome, I did not season the tuna or beans. I let the sauce provide the seasoning for both.

Hubby thought that the tuna could have been served with something else rather than beans (he's not a huge fan of beans). You could serve this with a puree of cannellini beans or even a very creamy mashed potato.

What you'll need

* Serves four as a main course

4 tuna steaks, approximately 100g each. I used frozen tuna steaks, or you could you salmon steaks
1 tbs vegetable oil
200g fresh green beans, topped and tailed

For the sauce

100g pitted Kalamata olives, roughly chopped
2 tbs parsley pesto
1 tbs red wine vinegar
2 anchovies, finely chopped

What to do

Cook the beans, either steam or boil them until just tender. Refresh under cold water and drain, ready to serve.

Make the sauce. In a frying pan on medium heat, add the olives, then the parsley pesto, vinegar and anchovies. Stir well until mixed together, then remove from heat and set aside.

The sauce should be thick and not too runny. But if you'd like to make it more liquid, add a little bit of warm water to the pan and stir well.

Heat another frying pan on high heat. Add the oil, then the tuna.Cook for approximately two minutes on either side. This will give you a medium-rare tuna steak.

Place the beans on a plate, place the tuna on top, then spoon approximately 1 tbs of sauce onto the tuna and serve immediately.

* If you don't have any parsley pesto on hand, you can still make the sauce, using the following recipe.

What you'll need

2 garlic cloves, crushed
1 cup loosely packed Italian parsley, finely diced or whizzed in a food processor
Juice of 1 lemon
2 tbs red wine vinegar
2 tbs olive oil
Salt and pepper
2 anchovy fillets
100g pitted Kalamata olives

What to do

Whizz all ingredients in a food processor or with a hand blender, then heat over medium heat in a pan for a few minutes to warm through. Serve immediately on top of the fish.