Food You Can Eat: Simple Tuna Spaghetti

We had this pasta with tuna once in Italy, What was odd was we had it in Northern Italy, and “tonnato” (stuff in a tuna sauce) is more associated with the south. I fell in love, and with the help of the internet a decade ago I figured out how to approximate it.

It was also odd because it was considered a meal unto itself, rather than a smaller first course to be followed by a secondi, a second course. It was a hot evening, so we walked around and found a gelateria that was still open and for the first and only time in my life I had plum gelato. It was delicious. Try it if you can find it.

This feeds the two of us (big guys), but might feed three or four.

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1 box/16 oz. thin spaghetti. You could also use rotini, if that’s on hand. I had it with rotini and The Better Half ordered with spaghetti. I preferred his. I make it with spaghetti.

3 cans of 5-oz. tuna in oil, not albacore in water. This is a good way to use up your pandemic-related tuna stockpile.

1 head of garlic, at least four cloves, diced.

4 tbs. of capers, if using. I sometimes don’t. Optional

4 tbs. of black or green olives, pitted and halved, if using. I sometimes do. Somewhat optional.

Some ground, jarred cayenne pepper to shake on, according to your tolerance for heat. 

1 lemon, halved, so you can squeeze the juice all over.

Parsley, for garnish.

Wrestle your big pasta pot out of its hiding place, remove the smaller kitchen accoutrements that might be hidden inside, clean, fill with water, salt, and bring to a boil.

Add the spaghetti or rotini and cook until a little firm, al dente. This shouldn’t take very long, maybe 10 minutes. Use the time to check out Deadsplinter.

Place a colander in your sink, dump the pasta in there but leave some of the pasta water behind, and shake the colander up and down to get rid of excess water. Put aside.

Heat a huge frying pan/skillet up to medium, you’ll see why size is important. I have a powerful gas stove so I go halfway between “simmer” and “medium.” Dump in the tuna, oil and all, some of the pasta water, the capers if using, the olives if using, and minced garlic. After 4 or 5 minutes sprinkle on the cayenne pepper, mix that around for the time it takes to do it once or twice, dump in the pasta that’s been waiting to take the stage, then mix again so that the pasta is coated. You might have so much of this that you will have to put the pasta back into the pasta pot and pour over your sauce and mix that way. It’s all good, as a former boss used to say, when everyone else could see we were steaming toward the iceberg that could potentially sink us all. Let it rest for a couple of minutes. Once plated, drizzle with your lemon juice and sprinkle a little parsley.

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7 Comments

  1. My Nonna used to cook spaghetti and tuna for me as a child. It was very much like this minus the olives and capers, I was, and still am, a picky eater. I’m feeling nostalgic and will give canned tuna another try.

    • If there’s something about canned tuna you don’t enjoy you can use fresh tuna. Obviously that’s how it was done for centuries. I wouldn’t know what to do though, probably make an olive-oil-based sauce lightly spiced. The joy of canned tuna, for me, is they throw in the oil for free and save you a step. Most Americans just throw it away which I think is a scandal.  

  2. We enjoyed lots of seafood in Tuscany, even when a couple hours from the Mediterranean coast. Italy knows how to eat (and drink). Thanks for the great recipe.

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