Tuna Day: Lemon Tuna Loaf and Tuna Capers Pasta

Well, not really, because World Tuna Day is celebrated on the 2nd of May. Tuna is a saltwater fish rich in omega-3 fatty acids and protein, usually found canned in oil, brine, water or other sauces. It can also be sold as steaks and grilled. Being such a dry fish, it has to be briefly cooked or left to simmer in a sauce. Which is what I did with the pasta.

Now, for a basic pasta sauce, you're going to need olive oil, onion, garlic, canned tomatoes and some stock or water and a dried cube. Flavor wise, I always use a pinch of paprika to which I could add some bay leaves, oregano, mushrooms or basil.

Moving on to this particular recipe, you're going to need (for 2 servings):
homemade pasta (2 eggs and 200 grams of flour, in the food processor, add some more flour if it's too wet, roll it out, cut it in strings, ready. full recipe here) or store bought pasta
quarter of an onion (or more if you want, some put a whole onion but for me it's too much)
2 cloves of garlic
500 ml canned tomatoes
1 teaspoon tomato paste or purée (fr. double concentré de tomate)
pinch of paprika
1 vegetable, chicken, beef whatever cube
1 can tuna
2 teaspoons capers

After you have your pasta ready, set it aside and begin making the sauce. Put a large skillet over medium-high heat and a large saucepan filled with water over high heat, for the pasta to boil in. Don't add the pasta yet.

Chop the onion and the garlic. Drizzle some olive oil into the skillet, leave it heat for a few seconds, then add your onions. Leave the onions to cook, until they become transparent, stirring from time to time, then add your garlic. The reason I do this is that the garlic cooks faster and so it tends to brown before the onions are ready and then it won't look and taste so good.

After these are done, about 2 minutes, add your canned tomatoes, tomato purée and pinch of paprika and stir them all together to form a sauce. Then, add the veggie/chicken/beef cube, whichever you prefer.

Before adding the pasta, take a ladle of the boiling water and add it to the sauce, stirring it until it's well mixed. Now you can add a good pinch of salt to the rest of the boiling water and put in the pasta.

Continue with the sauce, putting in the canned tuna and the capers, and try to mince the tuna into the sauce so that you don't end up with big chunks of tuna everywhere and that it's all evenly distributed. The sauce and the pasta are now done. Given the fact that you've made homemade pasta, they're done in 45 seconds-1 minute. If you've used store bought pasta, cook them as instructed on the package.

Now add your pasta directly in the skillet, stirring it until its evenly covered in sauce. Serve it while hot.


Lemon Tuna Loaf

A few weeks ago, we invited a friend over for lunch. She brought this amazing tuna loaf and I had to make it! I forgot to ask her for the recipe so I had to improvise. I found another loaf recipe and adapted it to this one. Here's what you'll need and how to make it:

2 cups flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt

2 eggs
1/2 cup oil
1 cup Greek yogurt
2 tablespoons lemon juice (one lemon)
zest from one lemon
1 can of tuna

Preheat oven at 180 C, 350 F or 6 gas. Prepare a loaf pan by greasing it with butter.
In a big bowl, mix together flour, baking powder and salt. Set aside.
In a medium bowl, beat the eggs. Add the oil and mix all well. Add the yogurt, lemon juice and zest and fold everything together.
Add the tuna and, again, like for the pasta, try to crumble the tuna so that you have it evenly distributed in the loaf and not have big chunks of fish inside. Add this mix to the dry mix.
Pour into pan and bake for about 40-45 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean.

Leave it to rest for 10-15 minutes and serve warm.

There you go, two great tuna recipes. Enjoy!