A Valencian tuna-and-pepper sofrito from El Cabanyal, the old seafaring quarter of the city of Valencia. Red peppers and tomato are slowly fried down to a soft, concentrated base, then pine nuts and flaked salt-cured tuna belly are folded in and warmed through. It is the Valencian cousin of pisto, but seafood-led and finished with pine nuts. Eaten warm or at room temperature as a tapa on bread, or as a filling for a coca flatbread.
Titaina comes from El Cabanyal, the fishermen's district by the port of Valencia, where it was a thrifty dish of the working families of the quarter. It is built around tonyina de sorra, the salt-cured tuna belly of the area, alongside the garden's peppers and tomatoes. The exact origin is unrecorded, but it is documented as a traditional dish of the Cabanyal still cooked in the old way.
A soft, jammy spoonful of dark-red pepper and tomato, glossy with olive oil, studded with whole pine nuts and savoury flakes of tuna. It is sweet from the cooked-down vegetables and saline from the cured tuna, the pine nuts adding a soft crunch and a resinous note. Warm and rich rather than light; piled onto bread it soaks in and softens the crust.
The dish is a sofrito: peppers and tomato are cooked slowly in olive oil so their water cooks off and their sugars concentrate, deepening the colour and sweetness without browning hard. The pine nuts are added late, often lightly toasted first, so they stay crisp rather than going soft in the wet base. The salt-cured tuna is folded in at the very end and only warmed, so it stays in firm flakes; cooked too long it would dry out and turn stringy.
Variations
When salt-cured tuna belly is not on hand, good canned tuna in oil is used instead. Some cooks add a little garlic to the sofrito or a pinch of sugar to round the tomato; raisins appear in some versions alongside the pine nuts. The same mixture is often baked onto a coca, the Valencian flatbread, as well as eaten as a tapa.
On the Palate
Where Titaina sits in the Spanish flavor cloud
Ingredients
Serves 4How it's made
6 steps · 20 min
- 115 min
Roast and peel 3 red peppers, then cut the flesh into small strips or dice.
- 25 min
Warm a generous amount of olive oil in a pan and gently fry the peppers for a few minutes.
- 330 min
Add 400 g grated or finely chopped tomato and cook down slowly until thick and jammy, about 30 minutes.
Watch outCook the tomato down slowly until thick and jammy without hard browning — cooking off the water is what concentrates the sweetness.
- 43 min
Lightly toast 50 g pine nuts in a dry pan until just golden.
- 53 min
Stir the pine nuts and 200 g flaked cured tuna belly into the sofrito and warm through for a couple of minutes.
Watch outFold the cured tuna in at the very end and only warm it through — cooked longer, it dries out and turns stringy, so it should stay in firm flakes.
- 62 min
Season with salt to taste and serve warm or at room temperature on bread.
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