Pushing the Friday Pizza Envelope...

A number of months ago, I tweeted that I had managed to get a fantastic deal on some really nice fresh tuna. It was too much for us to enjoy for a single meal (more like 3-4 meals), so I decided to prepare it in a way that would last (at least that's what I hoped anyway). I seasoned the tuna with sea salt and pepper, then hot-smoked the chunks over mesquite chips (btw, I do smoke over other woods too, from time to time, but mesquite is hands-down our favorite). Then I put the chunks into a small sauce pan covered them completely with olive oil and threw in 4-6 sprigs of fresh thyme.

After that, I cooked them on low heat for quite a while (frankly, I don't remember how long, probably an hour to an hour and a half), and then just turned of the heat and let it cool completely without removing it from the burner. Later, I removed the thyme sprigs and packed the tuna into a 1 liter utility jar, making sure there would be ample room for a thick layer of olive oil well above the top of the fish. When I poured the olive oil over, I shook the glass to release any air pockets I could see; in the end there was probably an inch of olive oil over the top of the fish. Then I just put on the orange plastic lid and popped the whole thing into the fridge and pretty much forgot about it, until later...

When an ad for the weekly special pizza "Pizza Tonnara" from my favorite pizza shop in Henderson, NV: Settebello [which also happens to be my favorite card in my favorite card game...] showed up in an e-mail, I knew I had to bring it all together and do my own take on the whole thing. And here's what I did:

Brushed my par-baked pizza crust (I always par-bake ours because we like it extra thin and extra crispy) with fresh garlic infused olive oil (i.e. 2 thinly sliced small cloves of garlic in 2 T. olive oil in the microwave for a couple of 10 second rounds--just enough to cause it so bubble a bit, keep a close eye on it, so as not to over-do it). Then I cubed up those nice chunks of smoked-olive oil preserved tuna, chopped a Roma tomato, pitted and split some kalamata olives, and got some fresh oregano leaves from the garden. About half way through the 10-12 minute baking time (450 degrees on pizza bricks), I tore some fresh mozzerella here and there over the whole thing.

It turned out really well! The things I liked best were: 1.) That the garlic ended up being very subtle, it was there, but by no means overpowering; and 2.) The tuna cubes developed a wonderful (and unexpected) crispy layer on the outside of each piece (probably due to the fact that they were infused with olive oil and then baked at 450 degrees...).