Tuna Freezer/Pantry Pasta

After the ball dropped for 2023, I vowed to myself that I'd eat healthy in the new year. And surprise surprise, on day one I already failed myself. The truffle mac and cheese bites in the freezer were calling my name after I'd had my evening glass of wine. I guess we all make mistakes, hopefully, I can turn it around fast. I remembered that I had a bag of wholewheat pasta in my cupboard, and decided to opt for this to turn my resolution back around.

As I'm waiting for my student loan, I knew I had to rely heavily on my pantry and freezer for ingredients to bulk up the pasta. I pulled out a tin of tuna and a jar of "Everything Sauce". This sauce is amazing, it's a jar of tomato sauce, already seasoned that you can use with pasta, use for pizza, etc.

While searching for more things to add in, I remembered my love of Masterchef Canada, and how I saw this amazing Mediterranean stew with capers and calamari in Season 1. Obviously in my house, I do not have fresh calamari, so the tuna can could be my pseudo "substitute" (If you will). But I was heavily inspired by the stew to make a pasta dish, similar to one my mother made growing up. It's a tuna pasta, with tomatoey & spicy sauce.

With some frozen veg and about 20 mins, I had a comforting bowl of tuna pasta that I had to share on here. Each bite had tonnes of flavour. There's briny parts, spicy parts and sweet bites, everything was surprisingly tasty.

This is ridiculously easy & fast to make, so please try! You can substitute things easily to your own tastes.

Prep time: 5 mins - Cook time: 20 mins - Serves: 2-3

Ingredients:

- 200g Wholewheat Penne Pasta

- Frozen Sweetcorn or 198g tin

- 3 Handfuls frozen Mushrooms

- 1 Jar Everything Sauce (any tomato pasta sauce will work)

- 2 tins of tuna, drained from brine

- 1 tablespoon minced garlic ( I use mine from a jar, but fresh is perfect too)

- Capers in brine

- Black olives in brine

- Salt & Pepper

- Chilli Flakes

- Olive Oil

- Dried Oregano (Optional)

Method:

1) In a medium saucepan, bring heavily salted water to the boil and add pasta. Boil until the pasta is 1 to 2 minutes shy of cooking. Reserve a mug or cup full of the starchy pasta water.

2) Drain the pasta and set aside.

3) In the same saucepan, over a medium heat, warm a glug of olive oil.

4) Add the minced garlic and the chilli flakes. It's important to add the chilli flakes at this point so that they get a chance to bloom and flavour the oil.

5) Add the frozen mushrooms and cook until they're golden. When doing this step, it's important to cook the water out of the mushrooms. To save time you can also use fresh mushrooms, but this was all that I had.

6) Add the sweetcorn and defrost in the pan.

7) Pour in the jarred sauce, stir and put in a few forkfuls of capers (With the juice) and olives (with the juice).

8) Bring the sauce up to a simmer, and then reduce slightly. Season to taste.

9) Add the tuna & pasta to the pan, stir with a splash of pasta water.

10) Finish with dried oregano.