Spanish Tuna

The Recipe:

4 cloves garlic, sliced
1 1/2 cups olive salad from the deli, including 1 pepperoncini and some roasted red pepper if possible
1 28oz can Muir Glen Fire Roasted Diced Tomatoes
2 tsp. dried thyme
1 1lb. tuna steak, or more if you want more than 4 oz portions
1 (or more) tangerines or Spanish clementines
Roasted potatoes

Save dressing from olive salad; chop up olives and any peppers. Heat a saute pan or wide saucepan; add olive salad dressing and saute garlic slices & thyme for 1 minute. Add olives, peppers & tomatoes. Bring to a boil & reduce to simmer, simmer 20 minutes. At the last minute, zest one tangerine on a box grater or a plane grater and add zest to olive sauce. Separate the clementines or tangerines into sections as garnish.

Meanwhile, salt & pepper then pan-sear or grill tuna steaks to your liking, mine is 4 min. per side in a hot pan. Let rest for a few minutes, then slice and serve with olive sauce over the top and the tangerine sections on the side.

Makes dinner for 4 with extra sauce; you could increase the tuna if you want to stretch it to 6. Demands a lightly-dressed salad to go with it.

If you roasted some potatoes, they go great with the olive sauce too. 1 1/2 lbs potatoes, scrubbed but unpeeled & cut into wedges; toss with olive oil, garlic powder, paprika (smoked if you got!), thyme & salt. Roast at 400 for 30 minutes.

The Story:

A friend brought olive salad to a party at my house but there was a bunch leftover. I made this up out of my head to use it up. Halfway through dinner I jumped up and tried to write down exactly what I'd done, it was so good.

If your grocery has an olive bar, that's a good choice to make your olive salad. A combination of black and green is nice, but make sure you have a lot of green olives.