Tuna Sauce with Tomatoes and Garlic
I’ve never prepared a pasta sauce with tuna. Not because it doesn’t sound good. Rather, because it just never occurred to me that you should. Considering the amount of tuna noodle casserole I served my husband during our poor college days, you’d think I’d have thought to give it a fresh Italian twist, wouldn’t you?
Like, Marcella, I have no use for all-white meat water packed tuna. It might as well be cardboard. The glory of tuna is that it tastes like tuna – not dry chicken. So, if it’s named after chicken…well, think about it. Someday I’m going to order cans of Flott in quantity just to have it in my pantry. But for now an acceptable brand I can easily find is Cento.
A little olive oil, a little garlic, slowly simmered tomatoes. Add a little salt, a little pepper, and that rich flavorful tuna. Finish it with butter and toss it all together with cooked drained pasta and chopped fresh parsley.
In her comment to my post for last week’s recipe, Marcella gently suggested that Victor felt I should consider a better quality of white wine. He was obviously unimpressed with my $3.99 bottle of Vinho Verde. His suggestion – a gewürztraminer from Alsace. I’m smart enough to know when to take free expert advice…
I think I know what we may be having for dinner tonight.
Just last week, I read that the light tuna (as opposed to white tuna) is less fattening and has less calories – who knew? I always assumed, like chicken, the white would be less calories but not so. So I bought chunk light tuna and you know what – I like it better! Still can’t buy (on a normal day) the packed in oil variety but I am enjoying the darker stuff.
Deborah responds:
Kim, there is a Spanish tuna from Galicia, called Bonito Del Norte, that is fabulous. Heritical of me to say, but I think better than any Italian tuna I’ve tasted. But, I’ve never seen it here in the States.
Me again – so I’d never heard of Vinho Verde before but twice in one day? Dave Lebovitz linked to this on Facebook today, The Bar Cart – Vinho Verde.
Deborah responds: So funny, Kim! I had tons of Vinho Verde at the GTG at my house last August. You didn’t get any?
We discovered it in Portugal. Right after we discovered the Alborino in Spain.
Prior to that, the only time I EVER drank white wine was Rieslings with Thai food.
This is one of our favorite sauces for pasta. It is a recipe given to me by my Aunt many years ago. I was happy to see it in Marcella’s book. We add a piece of orange rind during cooking.
Deborah, no, I don’t recall seeing it! BTW – I’ve been searching around here for an alborino as good as the ones we had in Spain. So far, not so lucky.
Deborah responds: Kim, the best alborino we had was at a little restaurant on the southern coast of Galicia. I can’t remember the town, but I – of course – took pictures of the wine bottle. 😀 I’ll check my files when I get home tonight and see if I can come up with a name. Maybe you can get it from Wine Library.
I love, love, love this recipe! I could eat it once a week and never tire of it. It looks fabulous Deborah!
Somewhere Marcella has a recipe for Tuna Tonnato (with garlic, anchovies, capers, etc.) that I use as a pasta sauce by breaking up the tuna. I also add toasted pine nuts and little pieces of broccoli crowns to this to make it a one-dish meal.
Her best advice about tuna in pasta is that you should not cook it! Add it at the end. I think that is something that made those old tuna casseroles unappealing.
Victor thinks there must be a lot of lemonade drinkers in this group, going on about such drinks as vinho verde and alborino. Gewurtztraminer and Riesling grown no closer to the Mediterranean or the Pacific coast than Alsace are the only white wines he thinks may on rare occasions be chosen as alternatives to a light, cool red. But then he maintains that the color of wine is red. He was once writing a book with that title.
There is very good Bonito del Norte if you are willing to pay for it. Try Chefshop.com. And there is Sicilian bluefin tuna that puts it in the shadow – while depleting your bank account. Try Gustiamo.com, look for tarantello. No one has mentioned ventresca. Aren’t there any toro sashimi addicts out there? That is ventresca, tuna belly.
Deborah responds: Thanks for the laugh, Victor! Lemonade drinkers! Infidels, all of us who occasionally drink our wine without color! 😀
Now I have to go try to find that book…”The Color of Wine is Red”. That would also make a great blog title.
BTW.. I’m going to send Victor a copy of the new book “The Wild Vine” by Todd Kliman. It’s about the histor of the Norton grape. I’ll send a bottle of Norton along with the book. Love to hear what he thinks!
Victor was under contract to Farrar Straus Girux for that book, but he lost interest in the new international-style Italian wines, abandoned the project, and returned the advance. It’s a good title though. Someone else will have to write it.
If I may add an out-of-context note about burrata here. The one from Chicago was not as good as the one from Ideal cheese, not as fresh and much drier.
Deborah responds:
Thanks for the heads up on the Chicago burrata. Burrata is something I’m not willing to cut corners on! We’ll go ahead and order from Ideal. And as Victor suggested, we will call to make sure we are getting the freshest delivery date rather than do an online order.
Cooking with cheap wine? Porca miseria!
Deborah responds:
Not cooking with it, Jerry….DRINKING it!
Well Deborah – I didn’t want to bring all of your drinking/cooking flaws to open light! LOL