Tuna Pâté Recipe
Tuna Pâté is delicate and light, blending tinned tuna and butter enhanced with a hint of lemon and black pepper. The simple but delicious pâté is perfect for spreading on crisp toast or crunchy crackers or dipping into with vegetable crudité. Easy for a quick lunch, elegant enough as a dinner party first course.
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Like many of you I suspect, I always keep a good stock of tinned tuna in the cupboard. Although I do sometimes cook with this easily available, nutritious fish (often a simple pasta bake or occasionally an easy but impressive Galician Tuna Pie), I most often eat it for a quick lunch. I love a tuna mayo sandwich, or salads like my Bean & Tuna Salad, Tuna & Egg Salad, or Italian-influenced Tuna & Potato Salad .
But I’ve discovered a great alternative: Tuna Pâté.
Quickly made with just four ingredients, the delicately flavoured, light-textured pâté is perfect for spreading on crisp toast, crunchy crackers, or dipping into with vegetable crudité.
TUNA PATÉ
My Tuna Pâté is inspired by the elegant simplicity of Elizabeth David‘s Pâté of Tunny Fish from her book Summer Cooking. Tunny was the British name for Atlantic bluefin tuna when the book was first published in 1955. I bought a copy in January this year and made a note to try my own version when the warmer weather came. And I loved it.
What I’ve kept from the original are the four basic ingredients. They are tinned tuna, butter, lemon juice, and black pepper. My preference is for tuna in olive oil, but you could use that canned in sunflower oil if preferred.
With household blenders and food processors not being the norm at the time, David ‘pounds’ the ingredients together. However, I strongly recommend you whizz in a machine. That’s not just because it’s quicker. You’ll also get a lovely light and airy texture to your pâté.
While you could incorporate different herbs and flavourings, I hold those back for a garnish. The pâté itself really is surprisingly good with just a hint of lemon and black pepper.
HOW TO MAKE TUNA PATÉ
Tuna Pâté is so quick and easy. In fact, it probably doesn’t take much longer than making a tuna mayo sandwich.
In the recipe card at the end, I’ve given ingredient amounts based on one standard tin of tuna. This should make enough pâté to serve 3 – 4 people. If you want a different amount, a good rule of thumb is to use half the amount of butter to fish. For example, a standard tin contains around 100 grams of tuna after draining, so I use 50 grams of butter. If you wanted to double the amount and use two tins (i.e. 200 grams of fish), then you’d need 100 grams of butter.
Start by draining the oil from the tuna but put it aside rather than discarding. Then put the fish in your blender or food processor along with the butter. It’s important that the butter is very soft, but not melting. I speed things up by pinging in the microwave for 8-10 seconds. But watch it carefully as the butter can quickly melt and split.
To the fish and butter add two teaspoons of the reserved oil, the juice of half a small lemon, plus a pinch of black pepper. Now whizz until you have a light, perfectly smooth pâté. Have a taste and see if it needs any more lemon or pepper, but don’t overdo it. I only use salted butter so don’t add any extra salt. If you have unsalted, you might need to season the pâté with a pinch or two.
Your Tuna Pâté is now ready to eat, although I think it’s better chilled. I transfer it to a lidded container and pop in the fridge. It will firm up a little as it chills but should still have a softly spreadable consistency.
SERVING TUNA PATÉ
So that the simple elegance of the light tuna flavour, enhanced with a hint of lemon and black pepper, isn’t overwhelmed, I keep back any extras until serving. Elizabeth David suggested garnishing her pâté with ‘a few capers and a little parsley or chives’. I think dill is great with tuna too and, instead of true capers, I’ve used some of last year’s homemade Nasturtium Capers plus chopped gherkin.
I love buttery but delicate and light Tuna Pâté spread on toasted homemade bread; in this post it’s my Multigrain Seeded No-Knead Loaf. But it’s good on crackers too like the Rye Crackers pictured below or my Scottish Oatcakes). It’s nice to serve some vegetable crudité alongside, or instead of bread or crackers for a lower carb meal.
Incredibly simple in terms of ingredients and method, every time still feels like a real treat to me. It’s so good, I think Tuna Pâté would make an easy first course when entertaining. But, quick to make, it’s ideal at lunchtimes too and has become a firm favourite at my house.
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Tuna Pâté
Tuna Pâté is delicate, light, and quick to make. Simply blend tinned tuna with soft butter and flavour with a hint of lemon and black pepper.
If you want to make a larger amount increase the butter so that it is still half that of the drained tuna (e.g. for 200g of tuna you'll need 100g of butter).
It's recommended that you read the accompanying blog post for extra tips before beginning the recipe.
Ingredients
- 100 g tinned tuna in olive oil (weight after draining: reserve the oil)
- 50 g salted butter (very soft but not melting)
- ½ - 1 small lemon (juice only)
- finely ground black pepper (to taste)
Garnishes (optional)
- chopped herbs (e.g. dill, chives, parsley)
- capers see Recipe Notes for homemade alternative
- chopped gherkins
To serve
- toast or crackers
- vegetable crudites (e.g. sticks of celery, cucumber, carrot, pepper)
Instructions
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Drain the olive oil from the tuna but do not discard.
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Put the tuna in a blender or food processor along with the soft butter, 2 teaspoons of the reserved olive oil, the juice from half of the lemon and a small amount of black pepper.
Whizz until smooth.
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Taste and add more lemon juice and/or pepper if you think it needs it.
Note: if you've used unsalted butter then you may need to add a pinch or two of salt.
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Transfer the pâté to a small dish or other container, cover, and put in the fridge to chill. It will firm up a little, but should still have a soft, spreadable consistency.
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Top with any or all of the optional garnishes.
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Serve spread on toast or crackers, sprinkled with more of the optional garnishes if liked, and/or with vegetable crudité for dipping.
Pâté can be stored in the fridge for 2 days.
Recipe Notes
You can make a homemade alternative to capers by pickling nasturtium seeds as per this recipe: Nasturtium Capers.
Tuna Pâté is based on a recipe by Elizabeth David in Summer Cooking (1955).
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