Pasta with Tuna - easy dinner solution

Dear all,

Everybody needs a collection of easy recipes that can be prepared with minimal shopping and effort. One of my go-to recipes for days, when I need an almost instant dinner, is pasta with tuna. This recipe not only tastes nice, it can be thrown together in twenty minutes – if you have the tomato sauce ready. I always cook big pots of tomato sauce and freeze them for emergencies.

You can also use readymade tomato sauce for this dish. Just cut up some good tuna, heat it up with the tomato sauce, boil your pasta and voilà! Dinner is served.

Tuna delivers precious omega-3 fatty acids, but you should not eat tuna from a tin too often. All tinned foods contains bisphenol A (BPA). Experts still argue if small amounts of BPA are dangerous or not. I throw a dice here and state: Once in a while we can afford to eat tinned food.

Whenever I can, I buy organic produce but everything today is polluted. Our bodies have to cope with pollution. I would not recommend eating tins daily, but once in a while our bodies should be able to deal with them.


Wishing you happy cooking, always!

Kornelia Santoro with family

 

Pasta with Tuna

Ingredients:
(for 4 servings)

• 1 tin tuna in brine
• 1 can of Italian tomatoes or 2 packets tomato puree or 1 glass Italian tomatoes
• 1 bundle spring onions
• 3 cloves garlic
• 1 carrot
• 1 beetroot
• 1 stalk celery
• 5 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
• 1 packet Italian pasta (500 gm)
• Salt
• Pepper

Method:

Clean and cut spring onions, crush garlic, grate carrot and beetroot and slice the celery. I chop all the vegetables in a blender, then place them into a pot and add the tomatoes.


Bring to a boil. Simmer for at least 15 minutes until the vegetables have softened. Season the sauce with salt and pepper according to taste. Open the tin and flake tuna. Mix it with the sauce.


For the pasta, bring a big pot with water to a boil.When the pasta water is boiling, add salt and pasta and cook the pasta as long as indicated on the packet. Drain the pasta, combine it with sauce and serve immediately.

Rainbow Frittata

Sometimes our world seems to crash. Whenever I open the newspaper or watch the news, I cannot help but feel depressed: bombs, bad economy, corruption. The list of tragedies goes on and on.

My only recipe for making the world a better place is to try and live as well as I can, to try to be the best person I can be. Both my men can tell you that I lapse many times. But I know that occasionally I manage to bring a smile to their faces. Our home is generally a peaceful and welcoming place; my son knows he can always invite his friends over – also on short notice. When somebody drops in, I am always able to offer lunch or dinner. It might not be an elaborate dish, but even on a rainy day I normally have a pasta sauce or two stashed away in my freezer.

In case I don’t want to make pasta, a frittata is a great way of dishing up a tasty and healthy meal in no time at all. Basically, a frittata is the Italian version of the French omelette. With one big difference: An omelette is cooked only on one side, while the frittata is flipped or finished under the grill. Like pizza, anything goes with a frittata. You can use every kind of vegetables, herbs, cheese, fish and shellfish, bacon, sausage and salami slices. Only one ingredient remains the same. You cannot make frittata without eggs.

I call the recipe here Rainbow frittata, because I tried to use as many different coloured vegetables as possible. This recipe is only a guideline. Just take whatever you have in the kitchen, throw the ingredients into a pan and spill some eggs over the mixture. In most cases you can enjoy a delicious, light meal.

Wishing you happy cooking, always!

Kornelia Santoro with family

 

Rainbow Frittata

Ingredients (for 4 servings):

• 6 eggs
• 1 big carrot
• 1 medium beetroot
• 1 bundle spring onions
• 2 cloves garlic
• 1 bundle parsley
• 3 tablespoons olive oil
• Salt and pepper

Method:

Clean and chop the spring onions. Crush the garlic. Peel and grate the carrot and the beetroot. Wash the parsley and chop it.

Heat the oil in a non-stick pan. Fry the spring onions, the carrot and the beetroot over a low fire until they are soft, around three to four minutes. While the vegetables are getting done, crack the eggs into a bowl and season them with salt and pepper. Mix the eggs well with a fork.

Add the parsley and the garlic to the vegetables and fry for another minute. Spread the egg mixture over the vegetables and cover the pan with a lid.

When the egg has largely set, flip the frittata or finish it under the grill. All my pans have plastic handles, that’s why I always flip my frittata. This is a bit tricky, but not as difficult as it sounds. I loosen the border of the frittata with a spatula and make sure that it does not stick to the pan. Then I place a flat plate over the pan and turn it. Now the frittata should be in one piece on your plate. From the plate I slide the frittata back into the pan and give it another two minutes.

If you use the grill, just place the pan under the grill and wait that the egg-mixture takes on a lovely, bronze colour. Enjoy!