This is a tomato based sauce with tuna, capers, black olive and toasted pine nuts.
Spaghetti with Tuna
Course: MainCuisine: ItalianDifficulty: Easy4
servings5
minutes15
minutes20
minutesBeautiful mediterranean flavours make this dish so tasty, a lovely combination of tuna with black olives, toasted pine nuts and capers. A nice little trick which really makes this sauce sing is to start the whole process off using a small amount of the sauce from sautéed mussels. I usually use olive oil, butter, garlic, parsley and white wine to sauté them so the beautiful salty fishy flavour of the mussels is released into the sauce. Take some of this sauce and use it as part of the base for the Spaghetti with Tuna sauce and it’s guaranteed to be amazing!
Ingredients
400g Spaghetti (Penne or Fusili also work well)
2 tins of Tuna Fish, drained
2 tbsp Olive Oil
1 Onion, finely chopped
2 tsp Pine Nuts, toasted
2 tsp Capers
10-12 Black Olives, halved
400g Tin of Chopped Tomatoes
400g Tomato Sauce Base for Pasta (or another tin of chopped tomatoes)
1/4 glass White Wine (omit if using sauce from mussels below)
50-100ml Sauce from sautéed mussels (only if available!)
Sea Salt
Black Pepper, coarse
Directions
- Put on a large pot of water to boil to cook the pasta.
- When the water is boiling, add at least a tablespoon of salt and then add the pasta.
- In a frying pan with no oil, toss the pine nuts over a high heat until they start to brown.
- Put a large frying pan on the heat and heat the oil. If you happen to have some sauce from sautéed mussels, add it now and heat it well. Then add the onion and sauté for about a minute.
- Add the tin of chopped tomatoes (both if using two tins) and about 1/4 tsp of Black Pepper. Cook for about 5 minutes, stirring and mashing the tomatoes with a wooden spoon.
- If using the Tomato Sauce Base for Pasta, add it now and mix well, bringing the mixture back to bubbling.
- Add the black olives, capers and pine nuts to the sauce and mix well.
- Next add the two tins of tuna and mix the tuna well into the sauce. Check the sauce for seasoning and add salt if needed.
- When the pasta is cooked, drain it and add it to the frying pan while the mixture is still hot and bubbling. Toss the pasta well through the mixture until it is completely coated.
- As soon as the pasta is coated, serve immediately. Enjoy the delicious face-splattering flavours!
- Serve with some freshly ground black pepper over the top and grated parmesan if you like.
Notes
- I often use the sauce that’s left when you cook mussels or clams as the base for a tomato sauce that I’m using with fish or seafood. It gives a really strong and deep flavour and means much less salt is required in the dish.
