Sicilian Tuna Steaks You'll Want to Make Over and Over
Skip the sirloin and enjoy this healthier steak.

Think you can only enjoy a fancy tuna fillet at a restaurant? You’ll want to start making tuna at home with this Sicilian recipe, which celebrates this popular Mediterranean fish and complements it with a fresh, flavorful sauce and nutty brown rice. Sicily is an island off the coast of Italy, so it’s surrounded by the Mediterranean Sea. Obviously, the Sicilians must know a thing or two about healthy Mediterranean food!
In this episode of To Eat With Love, our Mediterranean diet cooking show, nutritionist Fiorella DiCarlo, RD, CDN, shows how to prepare healthy tuna steaks with a Mediterranean diet spin. Unlike the average sirloin, tuna steaks are lower in saturated fat and rich in anti-inflammatory omega-3 fatty acids. This makes a tuna fillet a better protein for a heart-healthy, diabetes-friendly diet.
The healthy Sicilian sauce is made with tomatoes, low-salt chicken or vegetable broth, capers, chopped green olives, balsamic vinegar, white wine and chopped parsley.
You’ll serve the Sicilian tuna steaks on top of prepared brown rice. Compared to white rice, brown rice is higher in fiber, so it is especially useful for anyone managing blood sugar levels. You could also try other whole grains, such as quinoa or buckwheat. Spoon more sauce over the tuna steak and garnish with roasted pine nuts and parsley.
A single tuna fillet can be pretty large, so consider splitting one between two people. Thanks to the extra fiber from the brown rice, you’ll have no trouble feeling full from this healthy Mediterranean meal.
Ingredients
- 1/2 cup brown rice
- 1/2 cup low-sodium chicken broth
- 2 tablespoons chopped fresh parsley
- 1 tablespoon capers
- 2 tablespoons chopped pitted green olives (4 olives)
- 2 tablespoons dry white wine (1 oz)
- 1 tablespoon balsamic vinegar
- 1 teaspoon sugar
- 2 teaspoons olive oil
- 1 Dash of salt
- 1/8 teaspoon black pepper (2 dashes)
- 1 (14.5-ounce) can of low-sodium tomatoes
- 2 (5-ounce) tuna steaks (about 3/4 inch thick)
- 1 tablespoon pine nuts, toasted
- 1 tablespoon chopped fresh parsley
Instructions
1. Prepare brown rice as directed on package. 2. In a pan over medium heat, drizzle olive oil and sear tuna steaks for a couple minutes on each side. Remove from heat and set aside. 3. In the same pan, combine tomatoes and broth, and allow to simmer. 4. Add capers, olives, balsamic vinegar, white wine, parsley to the sauce. Allow to cook for 10 minutes. 5. Add tuna back to the pan and simmer for about another 5 minutes. 6. Plate tuna steaks over cooked brown rice. 7. Garnish tuna steaks with more sauce from the pan, pine nuts, and parsley.Nutrition Information
Nutrition Information Based on a Single Serving
*Percent Daily Value are based on a 2000 calorie diet. Your daily value may be higher or lower depending on your calorie needs.
Dietary Needs



Fiorella DiCarlo is a registered dietitian in New York City.
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Today we are cooking with
the exotic flavors of Sicily.
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Sicilian tuna steaks with brown rice.
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[MUSIC]
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So Sicily is an island right
off the coast of Italy, and
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they are truly, truly southern Italian.
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Sicily is a melting pot of
Mediterranean flavors and
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we're going to make a great,
healthy recipe today.
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We're gonna start with tuna steaks and
in Sicily, the tuna is famous.
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They have a long history
of being seafarers and
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tuna is one of their biggest catches.
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As a matter of fact,
they have great quality tuna in a can.
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Not the American version,
but these beautiful,
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jarred chunky pieces of tuna that
are soaked in extra virgin olive oil.
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Today we're gonna use
fresh tuna steaks and
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drizzle in some extra virgin olive oil.
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And we're going to go ahead and
season our tuna steaks with sea
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salt which has tons of vitamins and
minerals in it.
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And we're gonna go ahead and
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just put a nice little sear
on our lean tuna steaks.
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There we go, [SOUND] that sounds great,
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this is the hallmark of
the Mediterranean diet.
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The more fish you eat,
the better it is for you,
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it's really heart-healthy, and
it's very diabetes friendly.
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[SOUND] A little bit more
salt to liven up the flavor.
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Now, if you have high blood pressure,
you wanna watch the salt a bit,
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don't use as much.
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Otherwise, you're doing good,
now what we wanna do is flip our tuna
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steaks over and
cook them to about a medium rare.
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There we are, they're just
gonna go one more minute there.
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Tuna is a great source of lean protein and
it's super heart healthy and great for
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weight management diets.
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So now I'm gonna remove
the tuna steaks from the pan.
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They're gonna just sit there for
a while, and now,
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I'm going to make, in the same pan,
a very Sicilian sauce.
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One of the interesting parts of
the landscape of Sicily, is Mount Etna.
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Now, this is an active volcano and
what we know of active volcanoes,
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is when the lava is flowing down
the mountain, it actually imparts a lot of
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different minerals into the soil like
phosphorus, and potassium, and iron.
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And it just so
happens that all of the produce
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that is grown along the slopes of
Mount Etna, like the grapes, and
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the tomatoes, and the olives
are imbued with all of these different
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minerals which makes them even more
nutrient dense and have an amazing flavor.
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We're going to start with all of the
ingredients that really are a medley of
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Mediterranean ingredients.
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We're going to start with our tomato, as
a base here, and we have our tomatoes that
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are high in fiber with Lycopene and
Vitamin C.
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So I'm gonna go ahead and
put chicken stock in here too, and
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it's a low sodium chicken stock for
those with high blood pressure.
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It's fat free as well,
I'm gonna have this simmer just a bit.
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So we're gonna start with some
typical Sicilian ingredients.
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First we're gonna start with some lovely
caper, these capers add a little bit of
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a zing and
it's pretty much in every Sicilian dish.
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And then of course their
famous Sicilian olives,
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the olives have the same health
benefits of olive oil, of course.
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Then we're going to put in
some balsamic vinegar as well.
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And then we're going to go ahead and
put in our white wine sauce.
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Another very typical ingredient
in southern Italian cuisine,
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as well as Sicilian cuisine.
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And then we're going to put
a little parsley in there,
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just to liven up some of these flavors.
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And we're just gonna have it cook for
just about ten more minutes.
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Hey, now we're gonna take our
beautifully seared tuna steaks, and
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put them right back into our sauce.
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This is gonna be a really quick cook,
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because we don't want to
stiffen up the fish, okay.
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So we're gonna go ahead and put that in
there, and it's gonna simmer only for
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about five more minutes,
and then we'll be done.
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Okay so as a base to this beautifully,
healthy recipe,
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we're going to have some brown rice.
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Now brown rice is high in fiber and
it's a whole grain.
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So I'm gonna take our tuna steaks and
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we're gonna make this beautiful
presentation over our bed of brown rice.
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That looks just beautiful, there we are.
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We're going to finalize it with some
roasted pine nuts, again, very,
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very typical of Sicilian cooking,
they call them pinoli nuts.
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And we're gonna go ahead and put them
right over our fish there, nice and
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toasted.
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And then of course,
a little last drizzle of our parsley,
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just to liven everything up and
give it a beautiful color.
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And here you have it,
our medley of Sicilian flavors.
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I'm Fiorella and I'll see you next time.
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