Canned Tuna Pasta: Easy, Tasty and Affordable

Canned tuna pasta is a great dinner option when you're at home and crave Italian comfort food. It's an easy dish that quickly transforms common, affordable pantry items into a super tasty dinner.

Canned Tuna PastaPhoto by2foodtrippers

Traveling without a home base for three years encouraged us to become creative in the kitchen. Though we didn't always have the necessary tools or cookbook recipes, we still wanted to eat well on the road.

Despite the culinary challenge, we were highly motivated to cook at home on nights when we weren't eating out at restaurants. The longer we traveled without a home base, the more we craved comfort food that was tasty, inexpensive and healthy.

There's no better example than this canned tuna pasta dish where earthy tuna, spicy chili and vibrant tomatoes combine to create something special. Daryl first developed it in Italy, modifying it over time until we were both satisfied with the result.

Daryl whips this signature tuna pasta dish together when it's just the two of as well as when we have friends visiting from out-of-town. It's a relatively quick to make, inexpensive crowd-pleaser.

Ingredients

As the name suggests, the two main ingredients in this canned tuna pasta recipe are pasta and tuna. The full ingredient list is as follows:

• 1 medium onion (finely chopped)
• 4 garlic cloves (minced)
• 1 cup Italian flat-leaf parsley (stems removed and chopped)
• ½ teaspoon Italian chili flakes (adjust to taste)
• 2 cans tuna in olive oil (drained)
• 3 tablespoons olive oil
• ⅓ cup white wine
• 2 cups cherry or grape tomatoes (halved)
• ⅓ cup capers (salt-packed or packed in brine; optional)
• ¼ cup bread crumbs (finely chopped)
• 1 pound dry pasta
• salt (to taste)
• black pepper (to taste)

Although the combination of canned tuna and pasta blends well with tomatoes and onions in this recipe, flavorful ingredients like chili peppers and capers add a salty, spicy hit.

This flexible recipe can be modified based on what's in your pantry. Even the fresh ingredients can be replaced if necessary, though we recommend using fresh grape, cherry or plum tomatoes and herbs like parsley or basil for best results.

Canned Tuna

Since we live in Lisbon, we always have canned tuna in our pantry. The Portuguese have been canning fish since the middle of the 19th century and the tins are as popular as ever. Though we can easily find canned sardines, salmon and other fish varieties at local Lisbon markets, canned tuna is our favorite and, most important, it's cheap.

Pro Tip: We recommend using canned tuna in olive oil. It just tastes better than canned tuna in water. We also recommend draining the tuna well so you don't have an oily mess.

Pasta:

Who doesn't like pasta? We love the Italian food staple and always have several types of noodles on hand. Daryl likes spaghetti and linguini best, while Mindi prefers chewy shapes like farfalle and gemelli.

We alternate between these two types of pasta depending on our mood and what's in the pantry. It's only fair since both work well in this flexible tuna and pasta recipe.

How to Make Canned Tuna Pasta

You can carefully follow our recipe step-by-step or add your own twist. For example, you can adjust the amount of chili pepper based on your heat tolerance.

Another option is to replace fresh tomatoes with a 15 ounce can of whole tomatoes (which you can crush by hand at home), tomato puree or, for best results, passata - precooked jarred, unseasoned tomato puree. We prefer Ciro Passata Rustica.

This is essentially a two-pot dish. We recommend using a 10" to 12" sauté pan for the sauce and a large pot for the pasta. We use a 12" stainless steel All Clad pan that was originally a wedding gift - it's a gift that keeps on giving.

Pro Tip: Don't worry if you can't eat all of pasta in one sitting. The cold leftovers taste surprisingly good.

This recipe was originally published on 2foodtrippers. Consider subscribing to 2foodtrippers if you enjoyed it.