Tuna and Tomato Spaghetti

Spaghetti with tomatoes and tuna is one of my longtime busy-day dinners. It’s comforting, quick but still homemade, and delicious. My taster, who had never heard of it and doesn’t spend a lot of time in the kitchen, liked the dish and said he would make it—I’d say this recipe is a winner. It’s so “perfectly between” tuna salad sandwich (more of a lunch item, no?) and tuna noodle casserole (love it, but don’t always have time for the baking part).

This was the first time I made it from a recipe, and this one is spot on in terms of the flavor and the flexibility with the ingredients. I only had canned tuna in water in my pantry, so I went ahead and used it for this recipe (didn’t bother draining it), and it worked just fine. After all, this is exactly the kind of thing you want to be able to make without a special trip to the market.

Cheese was a new addition for me, so I took caution and decided to serve it on the side. My taster put some on his and liked it, but I enjoyed mine without the cheese. Personally I feel the strong flavor and aroma of the Italian hard cheese overpowers the tuna. I have used all of the suggested additions in the past; you can sauté any of them with the garlic or add them to the sauce when the tuna goes in. Again, flexibility is the key here—no need to be fussy.

Total time was about 12 minutes—basically, the time it took for the water to come to a boil and the pasta to cook—mine took 8 minutes—everything else can be prepared during that time.

I loved the garlic-y sauce, but I would be happy with using just 2 cloves.

This simple, unassuming recipe came together quickly with just a few pantry items. Timewise, it was about 10 minutes which included making the sauce while the pasta cooked. I thought the tuna would be overpowering but it blended in nicely with the tomato sauce.

I would make this again with the following changes: we thought the chopped tomatoes and tuna balanced each other out in texture, so I would use pureed tomatoes and add the drained tuna (adding the tuna oil to the sauce first) after the pasta was added to the sauce. Cooking it ahead broke down the flakes too much for our taste.

I did add black olives and bread crumbs for salt and a little crunch. Both were nice but we felt the sauce needed more salt so I would add capers. Overall, it was a nice change from our usual pasta dish.

I have made a similar dish in the past myself by making up a recipe and it’s a good dish to use up store-cupboard ingredients. It was a biggish meal for 2 and could have done 3.

I liked the suggested possible additions. I added umami-spiced tomato puree (which contained garlic, anchovy, olive, balsamic, porcini and parmesan) and panko bread crumbs. I did not really detect the crunch from the panko breadcrumbs, but I like the idea of adding breadcrumbs. The quantities were good and I would use these quantities again.

This is a very similar recipe I grew up with, called puttanesca. It’s a great simple and fast recipe for weeknights that will give you good nutrients and kids and adults alike love it.

Hands-on time this recipe does not take longer than 15 minutes. I love adding green olives or even capers to it. Also make sure to use tuna in olive oil and use its olive oil to saute the garlic.

This is a wonderful pantry dish to have in your arsenal. I used a good-quality imported tuna in olive oil, which I recommend doing. Your dish is only going to be as good as the ingredients you use.

I did add anchovies which I had chopped finely, sliced Kalamata olives, and capers. After tasting, I felt that it needed a tiny bit of a lift, and added some red pepper flakes. The flavors exploded. Delicious!

The tuna fan in the house says this is tasty, but need both herbs and a spice to give it flavor and a kick. We have tuna in water cans at home, and used those, so there was not a strong tuna flavor. This is good or bad, depending on how much you like tuna. It came together in 15 minutes…which is a big plus for a weeknight meal.

A fast weeknight dinner that you can make with pantry ingredients is a great tool in your kitchen survival kit. This recipe took some basic things I have done (like smoked salmon or tuna and chevre tossed with bowties, or penne) up a notch. The tomato and tuna was not something I had thought to do, much as I loved how they played off each other. The simple list of additional ingredients reminded me of a tuna tomato antipasto a friend makes for the holidays, and if you added some heat (pepperoncini maybe) you would be close to the traditional flavours of a calabrese antipasto.

But this all happens in the time it takes to cook the pasta!! I added capers, and used Parmesan as that was on hand. If I add anchovies for a future batch, I would not add anything else salty. I used very nice albacore packed in olive oil, and used the olive oil from the can to start the sauce, opting for the most flavor, and it worked well.

One thing I did differently from this recipe was to reduce the amount of pasta to more modern habits—using 2 oz (56g) per person was more in line with our carbohydrate-conscious world. That isn’t to say I would not have enjoyed more—I just try to not be tempted. We also used linguine because we prefer the mouthfeel to spaghetti.

What I might suggest is a combination of pasta and vegetable noodles (zucchini noodles are the obvious choice).

This was healthy, fast and delicious!