Tranci di Tonno Dolceforte all Assunta Lo Mastro

• 3 pounds tuna, cut into 1- to 1 1/2-inch steaks
• 2 tablespoons fine sea salt, plus additional to season the tuna
• 1/2 cup plus 1/3 cup best-quality red wine vinegar
• 3 cups dry Marsala
• 6 tablespoons whole peppercorns, coarsely cracked
• 6 tablespoons olive oil
• 2 tablespoons dark honey (buckwheat, chestnut, etc.)

1. Prepare the tuna in the morning or early afternoon of the evening you wish to eat it.
2. Several hours of riposo, rest, help to ripen its rich, luscious savor.
3. Bathe the tuna in cold, sea-salted water (2 tablespoons sea salt dissolved in 2 quarts water) for 1/2 hour.
4. In a large, noncorrosive bowl, mix 1/2 cup of the vinegar and 2 cups Marsala.
5. Rinse the tuna under cold water and roll it around in its marinade, covering the bowl with plastic wrap and letting the fish rest for another 1/2 hour.
6. Remove the tuna from the marinade, patting it dry with absorbent paper towels.
7. Discard the marinade.
8. Press the coarsely cracked pepper onto both sides of the tuna and sprinkle a bit of sea salt over each surface.
9. Over a medium-high flame, heat the oil in a large saute pan and cook the fish2 or 3 pieces at a time or as many as will fit comfortably without touchingfor 2 to 2 1/2 minutes to the side.
10. The flesh will be rare at the center, as it should be.
11. As they are cooked, remove the tuna pieces to a deep plate to hold them and their juices.
12. Pour off the oil from the pan and add the remaining cup of Marsala and 1/3 cup vinegar, along with the accumulated juices from the tuna, stirring and scraping and allowing the liquids to reduce for a minute or two.
13. Stir in the honey and taste the sauce.
14. Neither the sweet nor the sour essence of the sauce should be aggressive.
15. Should the vinegar be too much, soften it with a few drops more of honey.
16. Pour the very hot sauce over the fish, bathing the pieces as evenly as possible.
17. When the sauce and fish have cooled, cover the dish.
18. Permit the tuna to rest until dinnertime, serving it at room temperature after, perhaps, opening with the cipolle arrostite sul sale marino (page 192).

tuna, salt, red wine vinegar, marsala, whole peppercorns, olive oil, honey

Taken from www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/tranci-di-tonno-dolceforte-all-assunta-lo-mastro-391214 (may not work)