Pasta with Tomato and Tuna
There are many recipes for pasta made with tuna, Pasta al tonno is another very basic recipe, not given here. I have made Giada De Laurentiis below and found it nice for a change and it is made with ingredients you usually have on hand.
Pasta al tonno is pretty self-explanatory—it's pasta, with tuna—and a large part of its appeal is its adaptability. You can find it "in bianco" (no tomato); with canned or fresh tomatoes; with olives; with capers; with anchovy; with chiles; with garlic or onion (but usually not both); with parsley or basil. Canned tuna and dried pasta are the only nonnegotiables. No matter what, pasta al tonno has to be "facile e veloce" (easy and fast) to prepare.
Fusilli with Tuna and Capers
Recipe courtesy Giada De Laurentiis
This is an excellent pasta recipe. The sauce is light and flavorful and the lemon peel adds freshness.
1 pound fusilli
1 recipe Simple Tomato Sauce, recipe follows
2 (6-ounces each) cans albacore tuna packed in oil, drained
1 tablespoon drained capers
1 teaspoon grated lemon peel
Salt and freshly ground black pepper
1 tablespoon chopped fresh Italian parsley leaves
Cook the pasta in a large pot of boiling salted water until tender but still firm to the bite, about 8 minutes.
Meanwhile, combine the tomato sauce, tuna, capers, and lemon peel in a heavy large skillet. Do not overstir. You want the tuna to stay in chunks. Simmer to blend the flavors, about 5 minutes. Season with salt and pepper, to taste.
Drain the pasta, reserving 1 cup of the cooking liquid. Add the pasta to the sauce and toss to coat. Toss the pasta with enough reserved cooking liquid to moisten. Stir in the parsley and serve.
Simple Tomato Sauce
1/2 cup extra-virgin olive oil
1 small onion, chopped
2 cloves garlic, chopped
1 stalk celery, chopped
1 carrot, chopped
Sea salt and freshly ground black pepper
2 (32-ounce) cans crushed tomatoes
4 to 6 basil leaves
2 dried bay leaves
4 tablespoons unsalted butter, optional
In a large casserole pot, heat oil over medium high heat. Add onion and garlic and saute until soft and translucent, about 2 minutes. Add celery and carrots and season with salt and pepper. Saute until all the vegetables are soft, about 5 minutes. Add tomatoes, basil, and bay leaves and simmer covered on low heat for 1 hour or until thick. Remove bay leaves and check for seasoning. If sauce still tastes acidic, add unsalted butter, 1 tablespoon at a time to round out the flavors.
Add half the tomato sauce into the bowl of a food processor. Process until smooth. Continue with remaining tomato sauce.
Yield: 6 cups
Prep Time: 15 minutes
Cook Time: 1 hour and 20 minutes
Roman-Style Spaghetti Alla Carrettiera (Tomato, Tuna, and Mushroom Pasta)
from https://www.seriouseats.com/, by Daniel Gritzer
Add this tomatoey Roman-style pasta sauce to your arsenal of recipes you can make from a small handful of pantry staples.
The story of the recipe is that it was created by the carrettieri, cart drivers who more than a century ago would wind their way from town to town and city to city, selling all sorts of goods the locals might need. To feed themselves and others on the road, they'd whip up easy pastas using the kinds of shelf-stable pantry ingredients they were likely to have stowed away on their carts.
There are two versions of spaghetti alla carrettiera. The fresh sauce versions tended to come from Sicily while the canned tomato ones seemed to center around Rome. What they had in common was the cart driver, who, depending on the locale, seems to have had a different assortment of ingredients in their cart. Farther north, that meant preserved mushrooms and fish and tomatoes (this recipe). Down south, fresh tomatoes were chopped-up, with perhaps basil added; and no tuna or mushrooms at all, instead turning to toasted breadcrumbs.
1 1/2 ounces (40g) dried porcini mushrooms
1 cup (235ml) boiling water
1/2 cup (120ml) extra-virgin olive oil, divided, plus more for finishing pasta
4 medium cloves garlic, minced
Large pinch red pepper flakes
1/4 cup plus 1 tablespoon finely minced fresh parsley leaves and tender stems, divided, plus more for garnish
One (28-ounce; 795g) can whole peeled tomatoes with liquid, thoroughly crushed
One (5-ounce; 140g) olive oil-packed tuna, preferably ventresca (tuna belly; see notes), oil reserved
Kosher salt
1 pound (450g) dried spaghetti
In a small heatproof bowl or measuring cup, soak mushrooms in boiling water until fully softened, about 20 minutes. Using a slotted spoon, remove mushrooms from soaking liquid and squeeze out excess moisture back into the bowl or measuring cup. Reserve rehydrated mushrooms and 1/4 cup (60ml) soaking liquid, making sure to dispose of any grit that has settled at the bottom.
In a 5-quart pot, combine 1/4 cup (60ml) olive oil, garlic, pepper flakes, and 1 tablespoon minced parsley. Set over medium heat and cook, stirring frequently, until very fragrant and garlic is just beginning to turn the lightest shade of gold, about 3 minutes.
Add mushrooms and cook, stirring, until lightly sautéed and fragrant, about 1 minute.
Add reserved 1/4 cup (60ml) mushroom soaking liquid, tomatoes, and 2 tablespoons (30ml) reserved tuna oil (if your tuna doesn't have that much oil, just add as much as it does), and bring to a simmer. Season with salt.
In a pot of salted, boiling water, cook spaghetti, stirring frequently, until just shy of al dente, about 1 minute less than package recommends. While spaghetti is cooking, flake tuna into pasta sauce.
Using tongs, transfer spaghetti directly into simmering sauce along with 1/4 cup (60ml) pasta cooking water, stirring to combine. Cook, stirring, until pasta is al dente and sauce has thickened, so it coats noodles and isn't watery, about 3 minutes. Add remaining 1/4 cup minced parsley and 1/4 cup (60ml) olive oil, stirring vigorously to combine. If sauce is too thick, add more olive oil or pasta water, 1 tablespoon at a time, stirring well between additions, until desired sauce consistency is reached. Taste for seasoning, adding more salt if necessary.
Transfer to warmed plates and sprinkle with minced parsley. Serve right away.
Note: Most cans of tuna in the United States come in 5-ounce sizes while Tonnino, one of the most common brands of ventresca (belly) tuna, is sold in 6.7-ounce jars; you can use either here, but if you use the larger size jar of ventresca, you should still use all of the tuna in it (it's not as densely packed as the canned, so the actual amount of tuna is quite similar).
4 to 6 servings
