Vitello tonnato, veal with tuna sauce: the Piedmontese dish that sounds like a menu mistake and is made a day in advance

Veal with tuna. It sounds like a mistake on the menu, like a cook who mixed up two orders. And yet plenty of people order vitello tonnato in Italian restaurants, while few know how it's made. It comes from Piedmont, from around Turin, and in Argentina they know it as vitel toné.

The logic is simple. The mild, almost neutral meat is the canvas, and the sauce carries the flavour: creamy, salty, with a light sharpness from the capers. The meat doesn't fight the sauce - it calms it down.

The meat. Choose a lean, even cut, for example from the leg, so it can be sliced into thin, equal slices. First it's seared on all sides, then soup vegetables and water are added and it simmers gently. In an ordinary pot that takes about an hour and a half, in a pressure cooker about 30 minutes. Chefs advise that the meat's internal temperature shouldn't go above 65 degrees - that way it stays juicy and pinkish, not dry and grey.

The rest is half the recipe. The meat cools in its own broth, then it's wrapped and goes into the fridge, ideally overnight. The flavours come together, and cold meat is easier to slice thinly. That's why this is a dish made a day ahead - a gift for anyone who has guests coming on Sunday.

The sauce. The base is a homemade mayonnaise of egg, sunflower oil and lemon juice. Tinned tuna, anchovies and capers are blended into it, and if needed a little of the broth the meat was cooked in, to make it creamy. And one rule worth remembering: "Don't add salt, because the anchovies and capers provide enough."

It's served cold - thin slices laid out on a plate, covered with sauce, topped with a few capers, a strip of anchovy, a few green leaves, shavings of Parmesan or grated lemon zest. It can be a starter, a main course or a meze. It isn't complicated to make. The hardest part is waiting until the next day.