Grilled Tuna With Herbs and Olives

- Total Time
- 20 minutes
- Rating
- Comments
- Read comments
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Ingredients
- 1½ to 2pounds tuna, about 1 inch thick, 2 or 4 steaks
- Extra-virgin olive oil as needed
- Salt and pepper
- ¼cup pitted oil-cured olives, finely chopped
- About 1 cup mixed tender fresh herbs
- 1teaspoon minced garlic, optional
- Lemon wedges
Preparation
- Step 1
Start a charcoal or gas grill; fire should be medium-high and rack about 4 inches from heat source.
- Step 2
When fire is ready, rub tuna lightly with olive oil, then sprinkle it with salt and pepper. Put it on grill and grill about 3 to 4 minutes a side for medium-rare, more or less according to your desired degree of doneness.
- Step 3
Meanwhile, combine olives, herbs, garlic if you are using it and just enough oil to moisten and bind the mixture, no more than a tablespoon.
- Step 4
When tuna is done, spread a portion of herb mixture on 1 side of each steak and serve with lemon wedges.
Private Notes
Comments
Cooked tuna in very hot cast iron skillet 2 min on first side and 1 min on other. Perfect and glad didn't cook longer. Dry brined tuna w/ coarse salt and pepper 20 minutes before cooking. Wiped fish off, then coated with olive oil and coarse black pepper. Made olive mixture in heavy mortar and pestle; used mint, basil, parsley (garlic essential) - added 1 Tbsp lemon juice to balance flavor. Served with couscous and mixed extra olive mixture into couscous. Absolutely delicious and very easy.
4 minutes on each side ended up being cooked just a bit too much for us - next time I'll do 2.5-3 to keep some pink on the inside! For the sauce I used moroccan black olives, garlic, and mint, because that's what I had, and included another side of some fresh chimichurri sauce we had in the fridge, which added a definite kick! This was delicious. Served with a spinach salad with olive oil/lemon dressing. Perfect, easy summer dinner.
When not grilling, I prefer a sauté pan over the oven. I make sure the oiled pan is hot, a minute to a minute and a half on each side, then remove from heat to cook through. That keeps it tender and moist, 'cause it's a crime to overcook fresh fish.
Excellent method for preparing tuna steaks. Didn't have a grill, so used suggestion for substituting hot cast iron pan. Did 2 minutes on both sides and then let it sit for a minute in the pan after I turned the heat off (but was some residual cooking, so likely won't do that in future, since I like a little more pink on the inside). My teenage son scarfs this down.
Fantastic as is. Could have had more olives.
Very tasty, made with tuna from a summer fishing trip that was in the freezer. I used parsley, cilantro, mint and garlic, and added some preserved lemon to the mix. Blitzed it all up in a mini food processor. Cooked the tuna on the stove in a cast iron grill pan, 1 min each side. Would definitely make again!