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.

Alligator Pasta

The other day I discovered a beautiful avocado in the market. Instead of preparing my usual guacamole, I wanted to combine this avocado with pasta. Inspired by my internet-research, I came up with the following recipe, which I call ‘alligator pasta’ because avocados are sometimes called alligator pear. I decided to mingle the avocado with feta, roasted garlic, cherry tomatoes, fresh thyme and yellow bell pepper.

“Nice, salad for dinner”, was my husband’s reaction when he saw me preparing this dish. He took it well that the salad turned out to be condiment for pasta. “It works astonishingly well with the feta, but I could do without the cherry tomatoes and the bell pepper”, was his response. I agree with him, but I also appreciate the extra vitamins, minerals and fibre from the added vegetables. By the way, I would be happy to read your comments. I would appreciate your effort.

Wishing you happy cooking, always!

Kornelia Santoro with family

 

Ingredients (for 4 servings):

• 1 big, ripe avocado
• 1 packet (200 grams) feta
• 1 packet (500 grams) Italian pasta
• 75 grams butter
• 200 grams cherry tomatoes
• 1 yellow bell pepper
• any fresh herb you like
• 6 big cloves garlic
• salt
• pepper

Method:

Put a big pot with water on the fire to cook the pasta. Always salt the pasta water shortly before boiling. If you add the salt in the beginning, the water takes longer time to cook.

While the water is heating up, wash the cherry tomatoes and the bell pepper. Halve the tomatoes and cut the bell pepper into cubes. Wash and cut your herbs and place them together with the vegetables into a bowl. Salt and pepper the vegetables slightly and combine them well. Grate the feta cheese and keep aside.

Clean the garlic cloves and crush them. Melt the butter in a small pan and fry the crushed garlic until slightly brown. Be careful not to burn it.

When the water boils, add the pasta and cook according to the instructions on the packet. Drain the pasta, return it to the pot and mix it with the garlic butter. Add the grated feta cheese. Turn on the heat until the cheese melts. Keep a bit of feta aside for sprinkling over the top of the pasta.

Pour the pasta into the bowl with the vegetables and carefully blend it with the avocado-mix. You don’t want to end up with a mush. Sprinkle the rest of the feta over the pasta and serve immediately.

Pasta with Mushroom Cream Sauce

When the monsoon hits Goa, nature seems to awake with a sigh of relief: Finally the dry, hot months have gone and water flows from the sky in abundance. All plants respond enthusiastically to this change. Especially mushrooms appreciate the humid climate.

My son Valentino – often mentioned in my quest for healthy living – in general does not like vegetable. There are very few varieties I can make him eat. One year ago however, he discovered his love for mushrooms. Since then I try to cook mushrooms at least once a week. There are two recipes I prepare a lot: Marinated mushrooms nand Mushroom-Cream-Sauce for Pasta.

This creamy sauce is one of the classics of Italian cooking. Variations of it you can eat all over Italy using all kinds of mushrooms – the famous porcini and other European varieties. Normally I take white button mushrooms for this recipe, which are available in the market all year round.

Feel free to use whatever kind of mushroom you fancy: There are some local varieties in Goa which look quite interesting. Sometimes I make this sauce with dried mushrooms: Before cooking them, I give them a good boil in some salt water, and then I cut them into pieces and use them like normal mushrooms.

One thing however you cannot alter in this recipe: You need cream, butter and olive oil. The sufficient amount of healthy fats makes this sauce as smooth as silk. If you want, you can use more cream and butter; just don’t put less – with this recipe you have to forget counting calories.

Mushroom-Cream-Sauce – as smooth as silk

Ingredients (for 4 servings):

• 1 packet pasta (500 grams)
• 2 packets mushrooms (200 grams each)
• 3 tablespoons olive oil
• 3 onions
• 2 cloves garlic
• 1 packet (0.2 liter) cream
• 1 glass milk
• 5 tablespoons butter
• 2 tablespoons flour

Method:

Take the butter from the fridge to soften it and then start cleaning the mushrooms. I usually pull away the skin with a sharp knife to be sure they are really clean. Sometimes it is enough to just wash them. Don’t soak them in water, just rinse them. If you leave them in water, they will absorb it and turn soggy. Cut them at the last possible moment before cooking them. They tend to discolor like potatoes.

Clean the onions and the garlic and chop them finely. Put the olive oil into a big pan and heat it. Fry the onions for at least 5 minutes. They should turn soft and glassy. While the onions are frying, cut your mushrooms. Add the smashed garlic and the sliced mushrooms to the onions and stir everything well. Let the mushrooms cook until they have given out almost all their water.

During this time, put the butter into a cup and combine it with the flour. You should obtain a smooth cream. Once the mushrooms have cooked, pour the cream and the milk into the pan. Bring everything to a boil, then lower the heat and stir the flour-butter-mix into the sauce vigorously. There should be no lumps. Let the sauce boil for another 3 minutes, salt and pepper according to taste.

Boil the pasta according to the instructions. Your Mushroom-Sauce should have a creamy consistency without being too thick so it can coat the pasta easily. If it has turned out too thick, just add some spoonfuls of the saltwater from the pasta and stir well.

Drain the pasta, mix it immediately with the sauce and serve with plenty of grated Parmigiano or Grana cheese.