Tuna Steak with Salsa Verde & White Beans

Ingredients

• 2 tuna steaks, about 160g each, 2cm thick
• 1 x 400g tin white beans, cannellini or butter beans, drained
• 30g flat-leaf parsley
• 10 anchovy fillets
• 2 tbsp capers, rinsed
• 1 garlic clove
• 1 tbsp Dijon mustard
• 2 tbsp red wine vinegar
• 5 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
• 1 lemon, zested, plus wedges to serve
• 1 tsp olive oil, for cooking
• salt and black pepper
• Warm tortillas, to serve
• Lime wedges, to serve
• Fresh coriander, to serve
• Quick pickled red onion, to serve

Method

1. Start with the salsa verde. Finely chop the parsley, anchovies, capers and garlic together on a board until you have a coarse green rubble — chopping by hand gives you texture a blender will smash flat. The garlic goes in raw here, so keep it to one clove and chop it fine; you want a whisper, not a punch.
2. Tip the green rubble into a bowl and whisk in the Dijon mustard, red wine vinegar, extra virgin olive oil and lemon zest. Season with black pepper and taste — it should be punchy, bright and properly salty from the anchovies and capers. If it's flat, add another splash of red wine vinegar; if it's sharp, another glug of oil.
3. Tip the drained white beans into a bowl, spoon over 2 tablespoons of the salsa verde and add a pinch of salt. Stir gently with a spoon so the beans stay whole, then set aside — they need 10 minutes to drink in the dressing, otherwise they taste of tin.
4. Pat the tuna steaks properly dry with kitchen paper — water means steam, and steam means no crust. Brush lightly with olive oil and season both sides generously with salt and black pepper just before they hit the pan.
5. Heat a heavy cast-iron or stainless griddle pan over your highest heat until it's smoking hard, a good 3 minutes. Don't skimp on this — a cool pan greys the tuna instead of crusting it. Lay the steaks in away from you and don't move them. Cook for 90 seconds per side for a rare pink centre, or 2–2.5 minutes per side for fully cooked through. If you're cooking both at once, make sure they're not touching — crowd the pan and you'll steam them.
6. Lift the tuna onto a warm plate and let it rest for a minute while you assemble. Taste the beans one more time and adjust the salt — the salsa is salty, but the beans themselves are bland and need a final pinch.
7. Divide the dressed white beans between two warm plates, sit a tuna steak on top of each, and spoon a generous slick of salsa verde over so it pools down onto the beans. Tuck the lemon wedges alongside for a squeeze of lemon at the table — the acid cuts through the oily salsa and wakes the whole plate up.