My friend Kim came to visit a few weeks ago from San Diego, and along with our friend Anna, we had a week full of amazing food and drink. We took a Sunday evening to put together quite an eat-in feast, stocked with delicious treats from Chelsea Market: cheese, olives, fois gras, bread, proscuitto and this amazing tuna tartare. It was the perfect night — a super easy, snack-y meal, wine and great company. I always say I could have a meal like this every night.

This was my first recipe from a new cookbook I got from my BFF for my birthday: Extra Virgin by Gabriele Corcos and Debi Mazar. They have a cooking show of the same name that I have yet to watch, but hear is great. If this recipe is any indication, it’s amazing!

Not only is it delicious, with great flavors from the herbs (mint, basil) and lemon, on top of super fresh sushi-grade tuna — but it is amazingly easy and fast to make. We gobbled this up.

TW’s Tips

• Buy really high quality tuna. It’s worth it, and especially when eating it raw.
• Serve with very basic crackers — nothing with a flavor to it, you’ll overpower the tuna.
• I cut the recipe in half for three of us and still had some leftover.

Tuna Tartare

Ingredients

• 10 leaves fresh mint, finely sliced (chiffonade), plus more for garnish
• 6 leaves fresh basil, finely sliced (chiffonade) , plus more for garnish
• 2 sushi-grade tuna steaks (1 1/4-inch thick), 1/4-inch dice
• Zest of 1 lemon, plus lemon wedges for garnish
• Sea salt and freshly ground black pepper
• 2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil, optional
• Flatbread crackers, broken into bite-size pieces, for serving
• Endive leaves, cut into 1- to 2-inch pieces, for serving

Directions

Combine the mint, basil, tuna and lemon zest in a large bowl and stir gently. Taste and season with sea salt and freshly ground pepper. Add the extra-virgin olive oil, if using.
Spoon generous portions of tuna onto the crackers or endive pieces. Garnish with lemon wedges, mint and basil sprigs. Serve immediately.