While everything is going on, even a quick run to the grocery store has become a great feat. So, it seems like a great time to use up those items in your pantry. Something that I almost always have in my cabinet? Canned tuna.

Now, I too love a great tuna sandwich, but tuna salad gets boring after a while, amirite? Enter “Tuna Pasta Puttanesca” — this hearty, comforting pasta dish pulls double duty as not only a delicious dinner, but also uses up ingredients you might not have even remembered you had! Tomatoes, olives, capers, and our star ingredient, TUNA, make this easy meal a crowd pleaser and it’s packed with protein so will feed about 4 or 2-3 very hungry people!

Tuna Pasta Puttanesca

Ingredients:

• 1lb of pasta (traditionally made with Spaghetti, but you can use any pasta)
• 28oz can of crushed tomatoes or your favorite jar of tomato sauce
• 1 tbsp dried basil
• 1 tbsp dried oregano
• 1 tbsp of minced garlic or 3-4 cloves finely chopped
• 1 tin of anchovies in oil
• 1 small jar of capers, halfway drained
• 1/4 – 1/2 cup of olives — your favorite kind
• 2-3 tbsp of tomato paste
• 2 cans of tuna fish
• Olive oil
• Salt
• 1-2 tsp crushed red pepper flakes (optional)
  

Directions:

1. Put a pot of water (at least 6-8 cups) on medium-high heat to start heating up.
2. In a flat sauté pan (with at least a 1/2 inch lip), add some olive oil and put over medium heat until the oil starts to shimmer.
3. Add the anchovies 1-2 at a time to the oil, so they start to “melt.”
4. Once the anchovies start breaking down, add the garlic and use the back of your spoon to spread out.
5. Once the garlic starts to brown, add all the herbs and red pepper flakes until you begin to smell the aroma of the herbs coming off the pan.
6. Add the tomato paste and break up with your spoon.
7. After 3-4 minutes, add the capers and olives, including half of the caper brine.
8. Let this cook for a few minutes until there is only a little bit of liquid left, and it is mostly solid and mixed in with the tomatoes.
9. Add the can of crushed tomatoes and give this a big stir to blend everything.
10.  Once this mixture comes to a simmer, reduce heat to medium-low.
11.  In the meantime, your water should have come to a boil — make sure it’s a rolling boil!
12.  Add a big handful of salt to the water — this step is needed to not only season the pasta but also help the sauce come together later from the starch that comes off the pasta.
13.  Add the pasta to the water and give it a swirl.
14.  Add the tuna to the tomato mixture and mix it into the sauce.
15.  Cook pasta for about 10 minutes, stirring every so often to separate strands/pieces.
16.  Once pasta is al dente (still has a slight bite), add it directly to the saucepan along with a little bit of pasta water (make sure you reserve some more pasta water for later), and bring the heat to medium/medium-high.
17.  Toss pasta in the sauce and heat through for a few minutes so the flavors can come together.
18.  Serve yourself a big bowl of Tuna Pasta Puttanesca — you did it! Yum!