Tuesday, March 18, 2008

Last Night's Dinner #96: Penne with Spicy Tuna


Penne with Spicy Tuna

This was inspired by a Jamie Oliver recipe, apparently one of his wife's favorite pasta recipes. I didn't have some of the key ingredients needed so I had to change it up a bit. It turned out pretty good - this is something you can whip up in less than 30 minutes. So easy to make - the tuna is canned tuna (just make sure you get the best kind you can get)!



You'll need:
serves 2
1/2 box of penne
3/4 jar of ready-made tomato sauce - preferably Puttanesca sauce
one red onion chopped
one clove of garlic sliced
a handful of coarsely chopped parsley
one can of tuna in olive oil, drained
a pinch or two of crushed red pepper flakes
salt & pepper to taste

Boil water for pasta and begin cooking. It should take no more than 13 minutes to cook the sauce.

If you're not using Puttanesca sauce, you should add 1/2 cup of coarsely chopped black olives - even if you don't like olives (Karen!). It just adds a nice layer of saltiness that goes so well with the tuna. I guess it's like how you add fish sauce or anchovy paste to dishes even if you don't exactly like fish sauce or anchovy paste on its own.


Heat up olive oil and cook onions, garlic, crushed peppers for 3 minutes or so. Season with a little bit of salt and pepper. *You should taste the tuna to see how salty it is - which will determine how much additional salt you'll need. Add parsley.


Add tuna and mix carefully (you don't want to break up the tuna too much).


Add tomato sauce and cook to boil. Once you see the bubbles, lower heat and simmer for about 10 minutes and you're done!

Add pasta to sauce and top with grated Parmesan if you want (I was too lazy to grate!). Enjoy!

4 comments:

Karen said...

oohh...did you see him make this on Oprah? i've always wanted to try a tuna pasta. i was actually going to try the one in Cook's Country. i think i'm going to subscribe :-)

Luke said...

Oooh! That looks super yummy. I enjoy tuna every once in a while, and this recipe looks like a nice way to use it. Hehe--I always like the way your wooden spoons are positioned in the pictures. It always seems like someone's used a paused still frame of a video! Your pictures always turn out so nice--what kind of camera do you have?

Jade said...

Can I live with you? Can I live under your bed? What about under your pillow? I need someone to cook me meals like this on a daily basis. :)

Marichelle said...

karen: yep, caught him on O the other day =)

luke: thanks Luke, funny you should mention THE wooden spoon - I never really thought about it that much but you're right, it's in (almost) EVERY single shot.

jade: thanks for this comment, I read it as I was about to go to bed at 12:30AM and it cracked me up!!