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Tuna Pasta Bake
This recipe is the ideal easy supper for families, children especially like the simple flavours. It’s a great standby to have on your list of dishes to do when you have nothing in the fridge as all the ingredients can be found in your storecupboard or freezer. Use any pasta that you have in the storecupboard but bows, penne or macaroni work best.
Ingredients show imperial units
- 4 spring onions or 1 small onion, finely chopped
- 1 tablespoon olive oil
Olive oil
Usually the darker green the oil, the richer the flavour.
- Extra virgin olive oil is good for drizzling on salads and should never be heated as this destroys the fine properties
- Lighter olive oil is good for adding to bread, or to flavour a salad or marinade for chicken, meat, fish or vegetables. Lighter olive oil can be gently heated and added to marinades and baking.
- 2×185g tins of tuna
Canned Fish
Tuna flakes, sardines, mackerel, anchovies, all great emergency fish for salads, baked potatoes, pasta.
If you have any leftover it’s best not to store the fish in tins. Instead, tip into a plastic container and cover with a lid.
- 125g each frozen peas and sweetcorn
Frozen vegetables
Green beans, baby peas, corn kernels and spinach
Ideal for instant fresh vegetables accompaniments.
- 600ml milk
Milk
organic, full fat, semi-skimmed.
If milk turns sour (and this when it smells or tastes sour not when it has reached the best before date) it is excellent for making scones
- 25g plain flour
Flour
For pastry making or to thicken sauces, soups, stews and casseroles.
- Raising agents are added to plain flour to make self-raising flour, used to lighten and give an airy texture to cakes and sponges.
- Once opened reseal with quick clips or transfer to an airtight container or kilner jar. It will keep for up to 3-4 months
- 25g butter
Butter
Unsalted is better for cooking.
Easy spread butter is ideal for sandwiches and toast.
- 125g hard cheese , grated
Cheese
Add to eggs for omelettes, grate onto soups or salads.
- Parmesan often goes rock hard or becomes horribly sweaty. Ideally, all cheese should be stored in a cool, airy place at a temperature of 46-50F/8-10C. However, most of us put it straight into the fridge. This is fine providing the cheese is kept loosely wrapped in its own airtight container so it isn’t tainted by other foods.
- Store it in the salad drawer, which is not quite as cold as the rest of the fridge and use a micro plane for grating.
- A squeeze of lemon juice
-
1 teaspoon Mustard
Mustard
Worth keeping a few different types.
- French mustard or Dijon is creamy and can be used in dressings, marinades or adding to sauces.
- English is good for roast beef, steak, gammon or sizzling sausages.
- Wholegrain is used in chutney’s and pickles
-
300g Pasta
Pasta
Available in various shapes and sizes.
- Short tubular pasta (rigatoni, penne, macaroni) is best used in baked dishes with vegetables, cheese and meat.
- Smooth long pasta (spaghetti, linguine) is best with sauces like Bolognese, tomato and clams as these keep the pasta slippery and separate.
- Cup-shaped pasta (conchiglie, orichette) is designed to hold sauces with larger ingredients such as mushrooms, artichokes and tomatoes.
- Cut pasta (tagliatelle, fettuccine, farfalle) is best eaten with rich sauce made with cream, eggs or meat.
- Twisted pasta (fusilli, eliche, fettuccines, farfalle) the curly character of these pastas means that they will trap thin sauces such as pesto, garlic, and olive oil flavoured with chilli.
- Tiny pasta shapes (alphabet letters, fillini, vermicelli) cook quickly and are ideal for adding to soups and casseroles.
- Ravioli is stuffed pasta and can vary from cheese, vegetables and meat.
- Lasagne sheets and cannelloni are good pastas used in a baked layered meat or vegetables dishes.
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 160°C(325°F) mark 3. In a frying pan stir fry the onions for 1-2 minutes in a little oil. Drain the tuna well, and flake into a bowl. Cook the pasta in a pan of boiling water for about 10 minutes or until just cooked. Add the frozen peas and sweetcorn to the pan 5 minutes before the end of cooking.
- To make the sauce, place milk, flour and butter in a small saucepan and whisk continuously over medium heat until the sauce begins to boil and thicken. Turn down the heat to its lowest and let the sauce cook for 2 minutes. Add the grated cheese and mustard, keeping a little cheese back for the topping. Season with a little lemon juice.
- Mix the pasta with the vegetables, spring onion, tuna and cheese sauce and pour into a lightly oiled ovenproof dish. Sprinkle with the remaining cheese and bake in a preheated oven until golden on top, about 25 minutes. Serve with steamed green beans or broccoli.
Recipe Variation
- Other canned fish such as salmon and sardines would work well. Or flake in smoked trout or cooked salmon fillet.
- For a more sophisticated palette, add some ripe chopped tomatoes, black pitted olives, 2-3 chopped anchovies, a tablespoon of capers and some chopped basil.
