Filed under: American, By Main Ingredient, By Origin, Pasta
Usually, my cooking philosophy is to think of what I’m in the mood for and go for it: sometimes that means going through my endless file of recipes to try, and other times it means that I just start improvising in the kitchen. There are days, however, when I cook on command.
My DBF (known affectionately here in cyberspace as “the Canadian) stayed with me for a few months in Paris. He’s a meat-eater, and I’m a recovering vegetarian, so we didn’t always see eye-to-eye on what I should be making for dinner. Sometimes I would content myself with a salad or some tomatoes, and he would want something more substantial. This is how this recipe for “Tuna Casserole-ish” was invented.
I don’t like canned tuna to be hot. I don’t really like tuna to be hot at all. When I make tuna, I grill it ahi-style so that the interior is still cold. When I have tuna out of a can, I make it into tuna salad, to be eaten cold on lettuce leaves or on a sandwich. But when the Canadian asked me to make pasta with a can of tuna and some mayo, I knew I couldn’t say no to such a simple request.
Instead of mayo, which I don’t usually keep around, I beat some egg yolks with olive oil and tossed the mixture with the hot pasta, carbonara-style. I also added some Parmegiano-Reggiano cheese, because the Canadian likes everything cheesy. I tried it, and it’s not my cup of tea, but the Canadian ate up every bite. If things like tuna melts and tuna casseroles are your thing, then you might enjoy this Tuna Casserole-ish as much as the Canadian did, and who knows? Maybe you’ll be requesting an encore, just like he did a few weeks later.
Tuna Casserole-ish
8 oz. uncooked rigatoni
1 egg yolk
1.5 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
black pepper to taste
2 tablespoons grated Parmegiano-Reggiano cheese
1 teaspoon spicy mustard (I like Dijon)
1 small can tuna fish, canned in olive oil, drained
Cook the pasta in a large pot of salted water. While the pasta is cooking, combine the egg yolk with the olive oil, pepper and cheese. When the pasta is cooked, drain it, reserving a little bit of the pasta water.
Turn off the heat and return the pasta to the pot. Using your wooden spoon, add a little bit of the egg, oil, cheese mixture at a time, stirring to combine and making sure that the egg doesn’t curdle. The sauce should thicken to a creamy consistency.
When all of the sauce is added, break in the tuna with a fork. Mix to combine. If the sauce seems too thick, you can thin it out with some of the pasta water. Serve with extra cheese on the side.
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