Thermomix recipe: Marmitako (Spanish tuna casserole)

As most of you lovely regular readers know, I grew up in Northern Spain, Marmitako is not typical of my region (Galicia) but, if you move your finger a little bit to the East along the Northern coast of Spain you will find Cantabria and the Basque Country, where Marmitako (Spanish tuna casserole) is the perfect homemade hearty food. It actually is more typical of the summer when the fish used (bonito) is in season. But it's a hot hearty dish so it will warm your cockles in the winter (I wonder what the tuna will think of me talking about cockles!).

My mother used to cook Marmitako quite a bit growing up. You see, unlike me, she had cookery lessons in school and outside (this was Franco time) and, as she was supposed to be a proper lady, I remember her attending courses and the multitude of notes and books she brought back with her. I have recently asked her for some, will she let me have them? We shall see.

I have been cooking Marmitako the conventional way for a few years, actually not that conventional as I started cooking it when I lived on my own and I just did quite a quick version. This is the Thermomix conversion, with the help of the Marmitako recipe in the Spanish Imprescindible book that comes with Thermie as standard in Spain.

Marmitako 
Time: Approx. 45 minutes total

Ingredients

• 150 g onion (in chunks)
• 100-120 g red pepper (in chunks), you can use peppers of other colours but my personal favourite is red
• 100 g chopped tomatoes
• 2 garlic cloves
• 40 g extra virgin olive oil
• 2 teaspoons sweet paprika
• 760 g floury potatoes. Cut the potatoes with a knife but don't cut them fully with it, cut them about half way and the rest you snap with your hands, this helps them absorb better and the starch works for a better sauce. My potatoes weren't very big so I quartered them, made a deep cross with the knife on them and snapped the rest. This is called "chascar patatas" in Spanish.
• 400 g water
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 300 g fresh tuna (in chunks, not too big not too small)
• Black pepper
• A handful of dried mixed herbs or dried herbes de provence, you can use parsley too

Equipment

Thermomix TM 31, chopping board for vegetables, chopping board for fish, a couple of knives. I also used a bowl full of fresh water for the potatoes, I like placing them in water for a bit as I peel them.

Method

1. Place the pepper, onion, tomato, garlic and oil in the bowl: 3 seconds, speed 5.
2. Spatula in hand, make sure you slide down anything that has climbed to the sides: 7 minutes, Varoma, speed 1.
3. Add the paprika: 3 seconds, speed 3.
4. Put the butterfly in place and add the potatoes: 2 minutes, 100ºC, reverse, spoon speed.
5. Add the water and salt: 24 minutes (adapt this to your potatoes, I started with 20 but needed a further 4 minutes), Varoma, reverse, spoon.
6. Add the tuna and a couple of twists of the pepper mill: 3 minutes, Varoma, reverse, spoon speed. Lift the measuring cup to add the herbs a bit at a time during these 3 minutes.
7. When the Thermomix finishes doing its job, don't touch anything, just leave it to rest for 5-10 minutes (depending on how much patience you have).

TIP: Add a bit of white wine about 3 minutes into step 2.

Are you new to the Feisty Tapas blog? Welcome! Feel free to have a good browse, you will find out more information about me in the aptly named "About me" section. If you don't know what on earth a Thermomix is, this post
will tell you all about it. If you live in the UK and you already have a
Thermomix or are giving some serious thought to buying one, I run the fantastic Thermomix Owners UK Facebook group.