Pasta al tonno a modo mio

Frank27 July 2019pasta, primi piatti44 Comments

For the most part, the dishes we present here at Memorie di Angelina are taken from the time-tested canon of Italy’s rich culinary tradition. But like many other home cooks, I do enjoy improvising in the kitchen every once in a while, usually riffing off a familiar recipe.

I call this particular bit of improv pasta al tonno a modo mio, or Pasta with Tunafish “My Way”. In the traditional recipe for pasta al tonno, tunafish is simmered in a tomato sauce. Here the sauce is entirely uncooked, more of a dressing—or condimento as they say in Italian—than an actual “sauce”. And while there’s a bit of fresh tomato, the dressing is mostly in bianco.

The recipe couldn’t be simpler. You just throw together a can of tunafish, a cut up fresh tomato or two, and a few seasonings in measurements you can leave to your personal taste and mood, all mixed with a healthy pour of best quality extra virgin olive oil. Let everything macerate while the pasta cooks, then toss the pasta in the condimento and serve. That’s all there is to it.

This simple pasta has become one of my go to dishes for the dog days of summer, when even I don’t always feel much like cooking. And simple as it is, if you enjoy tunafish your taste buds will be happy, I promise. There’s no other way I know of making pasta al tonno that lets the briny taste and meaty texture of the tuna shine through like this one.

Ingredients

Serves 2-3

150-200g (5-7 oz) casarecce or other short pasta
Salt

For the condimento:

A clove of garlic, peeled and cut in half
1 can (200g/7 oz) tunafish, packed in olive oil, well drained of its canning juices
1-2 medium tomatoes, cut into pieces
A handful of capers, preferably packed in salt, rinsed and squeezed dry
A handful of olives, pitted and roughly chopped
A pinch of red pepper flakes, or more to taste
A few sprigs of fresh parsley, minced
Olive oil, lots of it
Salt, to taste

To finish the dish:

A few fresh basil leaves, torn into small pieces if large
A drizzle of colatura di alici (optional)
A sprinkle of minced parsley (optional)

Directions

First, put a large pot of water on to boil and salt it well.

Meanwhile, make your condimento: Get yourself a large bowl. (A wooden salad bowl is ideal here.)Take the garlic and rub the inside of the bowl vigorously with the cut ends of the garlic halves. (If you want a slightly more intense garlic flavor, leave them in the bowl and remove them just before you add your pasta. Otherwise discard them.)

Now break up the tuna into largish chunks and place in a large bowl. Add the capers, olives, red pepper flakes, parsley and olive oil to the bowl and very gingerly give it a turn or two to mix everything together, taking care not to break up the tuna fish too much. Taste and season lightly if it needs it.

When the water has come to a bowl, throw in the pasta and cook it until it is perfectly al dente. Drain the cooked pasta well and add it to the bowl, along with the basil leaves and a drizzle of colatura if using. Give everything another quick turn to mix—again, very gingerly to avoid breaking up the tuna.

Serve, topped with a sprinkle of parsley for color if you like.

Notes on Pasta al tonno a modo mio

As quick and easy as it is, there are a few nuances to look out for in this dish. First off, you’ll need to account for the uncooked sauce. Cook the pasta just as you like to eat it, since it will cook no further in the sauce. And make sure there is no excess water lurking in its nooks and crannies or you’ll dilute the sauce. It’s also key not to let the tuna break up too much, as it tends to do, so be gingerly, as I’ve indicated, as you mix the sauce and then mix in the pasta, tossing it only once or twice each time.

Don’t be shy with the olive oil. You’ll need lots of it to allow the flavors to meld and coat the pasta. On the other hand, you will probably want to go easy on the salt when you season the sauce, as many of the ingredients are salty by themselves, especially if you use the intensely salty colatura. You might even find you don’t need to season the sauce at all, although being a “salt fiend” I always do myself.

You can use any pasta you like for this easy-going dish, although I’m partial to short, twisted pastas like the caserecce pictured here, or the concave pasta shells called conchiglie that catch the bits of tuna nicely. Long pastas, to my mind, don’t go well with chunky sauces like this.

Of course, the better the tuna, the better to result. If you want to splurge on best quality ventresca, go for it. But above all, you want to choose a good quality brand of tuna that’s packed in olive oil. Even though you’ll be dousing it in olive oil to make the sauce, only olive-oil packed tuna will give this dish (or any other, in my humble opinion) the right flavor. You also want a tuna that is packed in chunks. The mouth feel is immeasurably better than the cat food like shreds that come in cheaper brands. For my everyday needs, I use Genova brand yellowfish tuna, which I buy in bulk at our local big box store at very reasonable prices. (Disclaimer: Despite the misleading name, it’s from Thailand, not Italy.)

Variations

I don’t always use the olives—and, if fact, I did without this time—but I usually do, as they add a appealingly zesty touch. A drizzle of lemon juice—not too much—would brighten the dish, although personally not overly fond of acidity in my pasta sauces. If you want a more assertive garlic flavor, mince it and add it to the sauce. If you want something more substantial, omit the capers and olives and add some boiled (or canned) cannellini beans. And instead of garlic, you might like some diced red onions, which brings the dish rather close to the classic antipasto salad tonno e fagioli.

Like most pasta dishes, pasta al tonno a modo mio is best freshly made. But unlike most other pastas, it can be made ahead and enjoyed at room temperature. But don’t refrigerate it, as the cold ruins the texture.

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