Italian
Silvia’s Masterclass
From
Silvia’s Masterclass
season
4
episode
2
Linguine in Bianco with Tuna Battuto
With
Silvia Colloca
PREP
15
MINS
Cook
15
MINS
SERVES
4
About this recipe
A coastal Italian pasta built around pantry ingredients. Italians treat pasta with canned tuna as a staple. It’s one of the first dishes we learn to make, and it’s the signature dish of uni students and those who have just moved out of the family home. It normally comes in a red sauce and uses tinned tuna. This is the refined version, in bianco and with fresh tuna added at the very end.
Ingredients
- 400 g linguine
- ¼ cup extra-virgin olive oil, plus extra to finish
- 3 garlic cloves, thinly sliced
- 4 anchovy fillets, finely chopped
- 1 tbsp salted capers, rinsed and chopped
- ½ tsp dried chilli flakes, or to taste
- 80 g pitted green olives, roughly chopped
- 80 ml dry white wine
- 150 g very fresh sashimi-grade tuna, finely chopped with a sharp knife
- Finely grated zest of 1 lemon
- Small handful flat-leaf parsley, finely chopped
- Salt, to taste
- Freshly ground black pepper
Method
1. Bring a large pot of well-salted water to the boil and cook the linguine until just shy of al dente.
2. Meanwhile, heat the olive oil in a large frying pan over medium-low heat. Add the garlic and cook gently until fragrant but not coloured. Add the anchovies, capers and chilli flakes and stir until the anchovies melt into the oil.
3. Add the olives and white wine. Increase the heat slightly and allow the wine to bubble for 1–2 minutes.
4. When the linguine is almost al dente, use tongs or a pasta fork to lift it directly from the cooking water into the frying pan. Don’t drain the pasta, you want to bring some of that starchy cooking water with it.
5. Toss the pasta vigorously over medium heat, adding a little more pasta cooking water as needed, until the sauce emulsifies and coats the linguine in a glossy, silky layer. Continue cooking until the pasta is al dente.
6. Remove from the heat and toss through half the parsley and a little lemon zest.
7. For the tuna battuto (tuna tartare)
8. Finely chop the tuna with a sharp knife until you have a coarse, tartare like texture. Do not turn it into a paste.
9. Season lightly with salt and freshly ground black pepper. Add a little lemon zest and a drizzle of extra-virgin olive oil.
10. Divide the linguine between warm bowls and spoon the tuna battuto over the top. Finish with the remaining parsley, more lemon zest and a final drizzle of extra-virgin olive oil.
11. Serve immediately.
Silvia Colloca
Silvia Colloca is an Italian-born food writer, opera singer, TV producer and host. She has authored seven cookbooks, including Silvia’s Cucina, Made in Italy, La Dolce Vita, Love, Laugh, Bake!, Simple Italian (2024), and The Italian Homecook (2025), all published by Penguin.
Silvia’s most recent television work is Silvia’s Italian Masterclass (Channel 10), with its latest season airing in October 2025. The series is currently funding for Season 4. She has also appeared as a special guest on SBS’s Mastermind in 2025. Her earlier TV credits include the SBS Food series Cook Like an Italian, which has screened internationally across three seasons, as well as Made in Italy with Silvia Colloca (SBS), filmed on location in the Le Marche and Abruzzo regions and earning her a 2015 TV WEEK Logie Award nomination for Best New Talent. She also co-wrote, co-produced and hosted the ABC prime-time series Silvia’s Italian Table in 2016.
Outside of food and television, Silvia has enjoyed a career as a celebrated opera singer and actress. In 2022, she released her debut solo classical album with Universal Music, which topped the Classical Charts for over 20 weeks. That same year, she performed with Andrea Bocelli at his Sydney concert, a once-in-a-lifetime experience.
Inspiration Starts Here
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