Tuna Steaks with Pesto Linguini

Patti and I have set one night a week just for us. It’s our date night. We usually put something special on our Louisiana Pellet Grill/Smoker but sometimes we cook inside. We always eat outside on our patio where it is very comfortable with a rainforest theme.  Wood burning stove, little lights, candles, lanterns and surround sound. We enjoy a little wine, or strawberry margaritas using frozen strawberries for ice, good food, music and sometimes a dance or two…

Our pal Tony, the sailorman, gave us some beautiful Ahi tuna steaks and we think we found a recipe to do them justice. Patti seasoned them with Pete’s Firehouse Sweet & Spicy rub and Ken grilled them to rare perfection. We served them over linguini with a readymade pesto sauce. Quick, easy and delicious.

Prep Time: 20 minutes

Cook Time: 6 minutes, 3 minutes per side

Grill: Louisiana Wood Pellet Grill

Pellets: Oak

Ingredients: Tuna Steaks with Pesto Linguini

4 fresh Ahi tuna steaks, about 6ozs. each

Pete’s Firehouse Sweet & Spicy Rub, to taste

8 ozs. Linguini type pasta

1 jar Classico basil pesto sauce 

Directions: Tuna Steaks with Pesto Linguini

Sprinkle both sides of tuna with Pete’s Firehouse Sweet & Spicy rub.  Cook pasta according to package directions. Drain and stir in pesto sauce.

Cooking Directions: Louisiana Wood Pellet Grill

To prepare the grill for cooking, check your pellet supply – top off or change flavors as needed. Scrape grill grates off. Turn the “Feed Control” High and press the “Start” button. Give the grill about 15 minutes to reach temperature and the grates to burn clean.

I like to smoke everything for at least 30 minutes with an hour being even better. After all the Louisiana pellet grill is a awesome smoker so use it for all the wood smoke flavor it will add to your food.

So after the grill comes up to temp and burns clean turn it back down to low. This will be around 180 to 200 degrees (84 to 95c). Place everything directly onto the grill and just let it hang out in the smoke and get happy for 30 minutes or so. This is referred to as “Smoking” or “Hot Smoking”, the temperature is 180 degrees (84c). 30 minutes of smoking is not enough to have any cooking effect on your meat but it is enough to open the pores so that the fish can pick up all the flavor of the smoke. After 30 minutes or so in the smoke pull your tuna off and set it aside.

Turn the grill up to 400 degrees (205c), when the grill comes up to temperature put your fish back onto the grill. I did this for 3 minutes per side.  Perfect. USDA says 145 degrees (62c) for fish, for our taste that is way overdone and dried out. I pulled these at 120 degrees (49c)

(Note: we are using Grill Grates. They are not necessary, but they are a nice addition to any grill.)

With fish you can watch it cook to your taste

Note: I get a lot of questions about the kind of pellets you can use with a recipe. Keep in mind that a recipe is just an outline. Some you need follow closely like when you are making bread, but most you can do anything you can dream, our favorite way to cook. Feel free to mix and match the pellets until you find a combination you really like. Also you are only smoking at temps less than 250 degrees, anything higher is cooking and there will not be much if any smoke so it does not matter what kind of pellet you are using.

This is why we like our Grill Grates

About our Recipes

We do our recipes on our patio where we have a lineup of grills, including Louisiana, Royall, Memphis, Traeger pellet grills, Char Griller side box smoker, Charmglow, Char-Broil, The Big Easy, Brinkman and Weber. I call it our “Wall of Grill”. Our grilling styles are healthy and low fat and will fit pelletheads, gas, natural wood and even charcoal purists. Almost any of our recipes can be done on any kind of good BBQ.

The important thing to keep in mind is TIME & TEMPERATURE. You can even do some of them in the oven or crock pot, but, then you lose all the flavors you get from cooking outdoors. But sometimes it does rain.

Remember that a recipe is simply an outline; it is not written in stone. Don’t be afraid to make changes to suit your taste.

Take it and run with it….

Live your Passion,

Ken & Patti

http://datenightdoins.com

http://blog.datenightdoins.com

https://www.facebook.com/pages/Date-Night-Doins-BBQ-For-Two/275239369167183 www.youtube.com/user/kenfisher92

http://www.louisiana-grills.com/

Our Thanks To:

Pete’s Firehouse BBQ

Sweet & Spicy Rub

951 848 9764

info@petesfirehousebbq.com

www.petesfirehousehousebbq.com

Brad Berret at Grill Grate

877 380 2527

brad@grillgrate.com

http://www.grillgrate.com/