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Spicy Tuna Toast with Garlic Aioli

July 1, 2021

Think of it as spicy tuna crispy rice, but if it went on a luxurious coastal Italian vacation.

To date, the most popular recipe on my website is for my Spicy Tuna with Crispy Rice, and for good reason! I don’t know about y’all, but I CRAVE raw tuna unlike any other food. However, making my spicy tuna with crispy rice is a pretty involved process, and I don’t always the have the mental energy in me to throw that together.

In this recipe I substitute the tedious crispy rice with bread fried in olive oil, which cuts the cooking time to a FRACTION of the other. It’s then topped with a homemade garlic aioli (which btw goes good on everything), piled high with fresh tuna tossed in Calabrian chilis (my fave) and finished with flaky salt and lemon zest.

Additional inspiration for this dish came from two of my favorite restaurants in NYC. At Sant Ambroeus, a Milanese bistro with locations throughout Manhattan and beyond, there is/was a sandwich on the menu called theTuna Panini All’Olio With Marinated Artichokes. It consisted of a brioche bun, garlic aioli, raw tuna and marinated artichokes. The only record of its existence that I can find is in this Bloomberg Article. I’ve never actually eaten it myself but its semi-famous amongst New Yorkers.

My other source of inspiration came from my recent visit to Dame, a new sea food restaurant in the West Village. Their most frequently ordered menu item is their tuna tartare toast topped with a creamy mustard emulsion, diced yellow fin tuna, and shaved bottarga. My initial thought was how genius it was to put raw tuna on a shatteringly crispy piece of toast. It achieves the coveted texture contrast that crispy rice is famous for, but utilizing an ingredient almost anyone can make: toast.

The final piece to the puzzle was incorporating Calabrian chilis, one of my most beloved and frequently used pantry ingredients. It adds a delicate heat and a touch of fruitiness that really highlights the flavor of the tuna. And thus, my Spicy Tuna Toast was born!!

If you want to prep part of this dish in advance, I recommend making the aioli and dicing the tuna. Everything else should be done right before you’re ready to eat. Also, if you’ve ever found yourself with a really nice/expensive bottle of extra virgin olive oil but not sure when to use it, now would be the time.

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I believe in happy & whole food that’s equally as fun to make as it is to eat.

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Spicy Tuna Toast

Cook Time:10 mins
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Ingredients

For the Spicy Tuna
  • 1 lb sushi grade yellow fin tuna
  • 1 tbsp chopped Calabrian chiles + more for extra spicy
  • 1 pinch Maldon flakey salt plus more for garnish
  • 1 lemon zested
  • 4 slices of sourdough bread or substitute with any crusty loaf, preferably from a bakery or the bakery aisle of your grocery store
  • olive oil for frying bread
  • extra virgin olive oil for finishing
Garlic Aioli
  • 2 large egg yolks
  • 2 tbsp dijon mustard
  • 2 cloves garlic
  • ½ cup extra virgin olive oil
  • ½ cup vegetable oil
  • 1 tsp kosher salt
  • 1 lemon juiced
  • white distilled vinegar to taste

Instructions

Make the Aioli
  1. In a food processor or blender, add the egg yolks, dijon mustard, garlic, salt, and a splash of oil. Process until combined. While the food processor is still running, SLOWLY stream in the oil. Stop and scrape the sides and bottom as needed.
  2. Once all of the oil is added, your mixture should be thick like Hellman's mayo. Add 2 tbsp of lemon juice and pulse to combine. Taste your aioli and add more salt, lemon juice or a splash of white distilled vinegar until the aioli is nicely seasoned and tangy. Transfer to an air tight container and transfer to the fridge until you're ready to use.
Prep the Tuna
  1. With a sharp knife, dice your tuna into uniform cubes, about ½ inch.
  2. Transfer to a large bowl and add Calabrian chilis, some of the oil from the jar of Calabrian chilis (or very high quality olive oil), a pinch of Maldon salt, and half of your lemon zest. Mix to combine and taste for seasoning. Feel free to make this more or less spicy depending on you personal preference.
Fry the Bread
  1. Instead of toasting your bread for this recipe, I want you to shallow fry it in olive oil. Get a large pan and heat it over medium high heat. Once it's preheated, add enough olive oil to coat the entire bottom of the pan plus a little extra. Place your sliced bread into the hot oil and fry for about 2-4 minutes a side, until golden brown. You want to be sure you oil is hot (but not too hot) before adding the bread, otherwise it will soak up too much oil and get soggy and oily rather than crispy.
  2. Allow your bread about 2 minutes to cool after frying, otherwise the aioli will melt on contact.
Assemble
  1. Cut any large pieces of toast in half to create manageable sized portions. Add about 1 tbsp or more of the aioli on to the bread, delicately spreading with the back of a spoon to create a nice thick layer. Spoon some tuna on top of the aioli. Garnish with more lemon zest, Maldon salt, and an extra drizzle of your finest extra virgin olive oil.
  2. Best eaten right away!

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What do you think of this recipe?

Can I ask where you can buy sushi grade tuna? How do you know it’s sushi grade? Thank you!

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