Luigi Pomata is known in Italy as “the tuna chef”. His family has spent centuries working the famous tuna traps in heat, on San Pietro Island, in the south of Sardinia, and in its restaurant Pomata, it serves a famous menu with tuna as the protagonist, where canned tuna with up to 10 years of maturation is served. But it also has cans that have been in the cellar for up to three decades.
Pomata was one of the guests at the V Meeting of the Seasheld a few weeks ago in Tenerife and, thank God, he brought one of his cans, with 25 years of maturation, so that everyone present could try it.
More than one of us wondered if, after trying the tuna, we were going to have serious food poisoning. But none of this. While the olive oil that covers it has degraded –Pomata discards it– the tuna remains in perfect condition. Pomata is doing tests on some cans to check that everything is going well and has even come to analyze a 75-year-old can of sardines that was still in perfect condition. Only rarely does a can swell, indicating that it is undamaged and thrown away.
The bluefin tuna that is packaged in these large cans destined to spend several decades in a cellar only comes from large specimens, from 300 kilos onwards, which are the ones that best withstand maturation. In addition, it only uses the tunas that pass through Caloforte between may and junewhich are the ones that accumulate the most fat.
tunas They are packed in the traditional way. after cooking in seawater, and with olive oil and a little more salt and they are not even put in the fridge, but rather in a cellar, eight meters underground.
The best canned tuna I’ve ever tasted
And how is the tuna? Well, you hallucinate. The most surprising thing is that there are no rancid flavors. The tuna has a softer texture than that of a conventional can and a more intense flavor. great.
Mediterranean Bluefin Tuna in Olive Oil 340g IV Regia di Sardegna – Handmade in Sardinia, Italy – Kosher Certified Sardinian Artisanal Production
On his website, Pomata sells “reserve” tuna cans at 25 euros per 330 grams, with ten years of maturation, but the quarter-century ones, a consignment of large cans that he found abandoned in the warehouse, are reserved for events such as the Meeting of the Seas. A immense luck could have tried them.
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