Deliciously simple, this Easy Sicilian Style Tuna Pasta is my easy peasy take on the traditional Italian dish of Pasta Puttanesca.
Last week I shared with you one of my favourite easy peasy pasta dishes: Gargano Pasta with Spinach and Blue Cheese Sauce, and it got me thinking how I have a whole gaggle of easy pasta dishes up my sleeve that I have never shared on Easy Peasy Foodie – how remiss of me! I think it’s because, since starting my blog, I’ve got so excited about developing new dishes, I’ve forgotten to share some of my old faithful ones. So over the coming weeks, expect to find a selection of my tried and trusted favourites popping up.
This dish, I think began as a Jamie Oliver recipe a very long time ago, but has seen many revisions and adaptations over the years and has truly passed the test of time. It’s such a great stress-free dish – perfect for those evenings when you are just too busy or too tired to spend more than a few minutes preparing dinner. It uses mainly store cupboard ingredients too, so it’s a great one to rustle up if your dinner plans don’t work out – in fact this is a meal I often do when my plans change or when I have one of my funny turns and forget to buy the ingredients for the meal I was planning! 😉
It might be quick and easy to make, but the flavours of this dish are to die for…anchovies, garlic, chilli, capers and black olives bring so much flavour to a simple dish of tomatoes, tuna and pasta. Just add a sprinkle of basil, a squeeze of lemon and a twist of black pepper and you have yourself a meal that wouldn’t be out of place in a fancy Italian restaurant…in under 20 minutes!
The pasta sauce can also be used as a pizza topping or thrown over a baked potato – so why not make yourself a double quantity and then that’s lunch sorted for the next day too!
If you are not a fan of anchovies, you can miss them out…but do bear in mind that they dissolve down into nothing and you can’t really taste the anchovies in the finished sauce, but they give the dish a lovely richness and depth. Oh and if you find yourself with any leftover anchovies, you can freeze them and use them straight from frozen in your next batch – I do this frequently!
Now this is a dish that (in my humble option) was made for wine…and surprisingly it goes really rather well with Sauvignon Blanc – especially a gutsy New Zealand one, but if you’d rather stick to red, I suggest something like Montepulciano d’Abbruzzo or Sangiovese di Toscana or you could stay with the Sicilian theme and try a Sicilian Nero d’Avola.
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Easy Sicilian Style Tuna Pasta
Ingredients
- 25 g tin anchovy fillets in oil (freeze any leftovers for next time)
- 2 tablespoons capers
- 4 tablespoons black olives halved
- ½ teaspoon dried chilli flakes (or more if you love chilli!)
- 2 cloves garlic sliced or crushed
- 400 g tin chopped tomatoes
- Black pepper
- 300 g penne pasta (or whatever shape you prefer)
- 160 g tin tuna chunks or steak drained
- Juice of half a lemon
- Small handful of basil chopped
Instructions
- Put the anchovies and a little of the anchovy oil in the pan and heat over a very low heat, breaking up the anchovies with a spoon.
- Next, add the capers, olives, garlic and chilli to the pan. Cook everything, stirring regularly, for about 2 minutes, until the anchovies have dissolved completely and the garlic is cooked but not burnt.
- Add the tin of tomatoes and black pepper and bring to the boil, then turn down to a gentle simmer, stirring occasionally.
- Next, put your pasta on to boil. Cook the pasta until it is just al dente – this should take about 10 minutes.
- When your pasta is about a minute away from being ready, add the tuna to the tomato sauce along with the lemon juice and half the basil. Stir and break up the tuna a little, but not completely.
- Drain the pasta and tip it into the sauce, along with a tablespoon or two of the cooking water.
- Stir everything together and serve scattered with the rest of the basil and a couple of extra twists of black pepper.
Notes
- Not suitable for freezing.
- Nutrition information is approximate and meant as a guideline only.
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Linkies
I am linking this up to Cook Blog Share.
Denise says
Do you think this recipe would work with tinned pink salmon, I have everything but the tuna and a lot of salmon ! Love your blog x
Eb Gargano says
Aw, thanks for your kind words Denise 🙂 I’ve never tried it with salmon, so not sure if it would taste quite as nice, but it would certainly work and I can’t imagine it would taste bad – all those flavours go well with salmon too! Certainly worth a try 🙂 Let me know what you think if you do try it – I’d love to know! Eb x
Mandy says
You just can’t beat a quick and easy pasta dish for those busy week nigh dinners. I frequently fail completely with meal planning and when I do I often go off piste and use the ingredients for something else! Thanks for linking up with #CookBlogShare
Eb Gargano says
Quite – I have a whole raft up my sleeve but it suddenly occurred to me I’d only blogged a couple! Definitely planning to put that right. Thanks for your kind comments 🙂 Eb x
Corina says
I also have a pasta dish that I make when I just haven’t thought about dinner or I realise I don’t have a key ingredient I thought I had! This dish sounds really tasty and I love the capers and anchovies in it too – I’d have to make it when Mr SearchingforSpice was out though as tinned tuna is one of about 3 things he will absolutely not eat! Thanks for sharing with #CookOnceEatTwice
Eb Gargano says
I’m glad it’s not just me – not having a key ingredient is something I seem a little to good at…usually when I desperately need to photograph it for my blog – gah! Oooh – sad to hear Mr SFS is not keen on tinned tuna. Does he like the fresh kind? This works fine with that too – you just have to cook it first and then add it to the sauce at the end. This would also be a lovely sauce to serve on/with fresh tuna or most other fish, now I come to think about it. Thanks for your lovely comments. Eb 🙂
Sarah James @ Tales From The Kitchen Shed says
This looks delicious Eb, I love a recipe that uses store cupboard ingredients & is so tasty. I’m glad I’m not the only one who forgets to buy an essential item for a recipe x
Eb Gargano says
Thanks Sarah! Oh no you are definitely not the only one!! I’m always doing it!! 🙂 Eb x
Kate - gluten free alchemist says
Another speedy and delicious pasta dish Eb….. Interestingly, I hate tinned anchovies (one of the few foods I hate!), but I do love fresh ones….. Perhaps I could just substitute????
Eb Gargano says
Thanks Kate, you could just skip the anchovies out if you don’t like them…though they dissolve down to nothing and you can’t really taste them…I guess you could use fresh ones, but not sure they would dissolve like the tinned ones…though if you like the fresh ones I guess you wouldn’t mind if there were some chunks of anchovy in there! Let me know how it goes if you try it! Eb x
Nina says
I made this the other day and it was great. Easy, quick but really tasty. Added a extra small red chili pepper for that extra kick – delicious! Will make this again.
Eb Gargano says
Aw, thanks Nina – so pleased you liked it! And thank you so much for taking the time to tell me – makes me so happy to get such positive feedback!! Xx
Jenny Walters says
Oh this does sound absolutely beautiful. All the flavours are exactly what I want to eat any and every day of the week. Tuna pasta done like this is very hard to beat. Delish! Thank you for sharing with #CookBlogShare
Eb Gargano says
Thanks Jenny 🙂