Bluefin tuna loin in olive oil. A clean, lean part of the tuna with a juicy texture and delicate flavour. This is wild bluefin tuna caught off the Andalusian coast using 3,000-year-old artisanal fishing techniques.
Serving tip: top a cold potato salad with the meaty flakes of bluefin or add to a tomato, garlic and onion pasta sauce.
About the cut: ventresca is the fattiest part of the tuna, tarantelo is at the midpoint, and the loin is the leanest. The loin comes from two parts of the tuna: the outer section of the tuna's upper loin, the plato or plate, which stretches from the neck to the tail. And the less fatty parts of the under loin.
About the Bluefin tuna: the tuna is caught using almadraba traps, a three-thousand year old technique that relies solely on a maze of fixed nets, anchors, ropes and boats. The bluefin tuna is harvested sustainably: around 1% of the tuna that passes through the Strait is caught, and smaller tuna, which have yet to reproduce, are able to swim through the holes in the nets. The almadraba traps are set up from April to June, the time when the tuna pass through the Strait of Gibraltar. Towns along this stretch of the Costa de la Luz, including Barbate, hold festivals in May to celebrate the arrival of the tuna and this ancient tradition.
About the cannery: artisanal cannery Herpac is a family business, founded in 1986 by brothers Francisco and Diego Pacheco. Herpac is a portmanteau word, a blend of hermanos (brothers) and Pacheco. It began life as a small shop in the Andalusian fishing town of Barbate, specialising in mojama, tuna that is salted and air-dried in the sun. Today it employs 120 people, the vast majority of whom live in Barbate, and is lead by the third generation of the Pacheco family. It continues its mission to introduce the richness of the Barbate sea to tables outside Spain.
