Italian Tuna, the Perfect Cool Summer Sandwich without Oleoresin.

Chef Calle’s Italian tuna sandwich is a perfect, nutritious and delicious cool meal on hot summer days.

First you start with the finest, fresh, local and organic ingredients you can find. Organic Avocado, organic tomato and canned imported Italian tuna. Yes, it is more expensive but if you taste it you will know why. I also used my own, home grown Basil and Thyme and fresh ground pepper in this preparation.

Another reason that this sandwich is special and healthy is because I use no mayonnaise. Mayonnaise is a wonderful classic French sauce and when made fresh at home can be amazing but it is full of fat and calories and if you use mayo from a jar it is typically filled with additives that you can’t spell and don’t want to ingest. 1 tablespoon of mayo adds 100 calories, 90 of which are fat calories. 10 grams of fat from one tablespoon and who would ever use just one tablespoon. Typically 5-6 tablespoons are added to one can of tuna so 70 calories of healthy tuna turns into 500-600 calories and that is before you spread a tablespoon or two on each slice of bread. OUCH!

So why do we always use mayo with tuna? Because that is the way our Mom made it.

Rather than mayo I add a tablespoon or two of extravirgin olive oil, some fresh Thyme leafs and finely diced red onion to the tuna. Yum and fewer than 1/2 the calories and you will fine that if you spend a little more on the “imported Italian tuna” you won’t need to add as much of anything to make it taste good.

In checking the label of mayo I found one ingredient I did not know. That was oleoresin.  So I Googled it. Well, oleoresin is found in most store bought mayo and many other processed foods and is extracted from paprika and peppers. So far so good. Then I see how it is extracted and I quote  from Wikipedia “Extraction is performed by percolation with a variety of solvents, primarily hexane, which are removed prior to use.”  The article doesn’t say how they remove the solvents like hexane. It is enough to know that hexane is a “significant constituent of gasoline“. And it gets better. Did you ever wonder what the main ingredient in “Pepper Spray” is? You got it. Oleoresin.  So check your labels.

Watch the slide show. It is pretty much self explanatory and and easy and beautiful combination of premium ingredients.

I know what some of you are thinking. What do you coat the slices of bread with if you don’t use mayo. Who wants to eat dry bread. Well I say use really fresh bread but if you don’t have any and want something on the bread do what I do. Take a couple of the left over slices of avocado and mash them up with a few drops of olive oil and a little salt and pepper. Spread it on the bread and you will find that it is better than mayo and tastes amazing.

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

Advertisement