There is no doubt about the beneficial properties of fresh tuna. But is a canned product so good? In fact, in this form, a large amount of nutrients is stored in fish. Therefore, if a can of tuna “hid” in the refrigerator, and the ideas for a quick dinner have already exhausted themselves, then it's time to use one of the recipes below. In our article, we will talk about how to cook pasta with tuna in a creamy sauce. There is no doubt that the dish will turn out delicious, which means that it can be served even for dear guests.
Ideal for a family dinner
According to nutritionists, in the evening, it is preferable for a person to eat fish. So, pasta with tuna can rightly be considered the perfect dinner. And that's why:
- In canned tuna meat, the protein content reaches 30%. It is absorbed by the body by 93–98%, and is digested in just 3 hours. This means that the feeling of hunger will not catch up until going to bed, but at the same time the stomach will not be full, which is an undoubted advantage of dinner with fish.
- Canned tuna, like fresh tuna, contains omega-3 unsaturated fatty acids, minerals and vitamins, which are so necessary for the full functioning of the body.
- You can make canned tuna pasta in just 20 minutes. After a long and hard day at work, a quick dinner is just what you need. And how appetizing the dish on the table looks can be seen in the photo.
A step-by-step recipe for pasta with tuna in a creamy sauce at home is presented below. The dish is designed for a family of four.
What you need to prepare
The ingredients for pasta with tuna in a creamy sauce are fairly straightforward. To prepare a meal, you must stock up on the following foods in advance:
- spaghetti - 350 g;
- tuna in its own juice - 1 can;
- cream with a fat content of 20% - 250 ml;
- onion - 1 pc.;
- garlic - 1 pc.;
- pitted olives - 100 g;
- olive oil - 3 tbsp. l .;
- nutmeg - ¼ tsp;
- salt - ½ tsp
From the dishes, prepare a large pan to cook the pasta. Creamy sauce with tuna and black olives is cooked in a deep pan. From spices, in addition to nutmeg, you can take black pepper and Provence herbs.
Step by step cooking sauce
The advantage of this dish is that having spent a minimum of time you can get maximum pleasure. And this is the main plus of a quick dinner. Step by step the whole cooking process can be represented as follows:
- Chop the onion and garlic with a knife.
- Heat quality olive oil in a pan. Fry onion and garlic on it for 3 minutes until soft.
- Drain juice from cans of canned tuna. For further cooking, it will not be needed.
- Mash the fish with a fork and send to the pan. Stir with the onion.
- After 2 minutes, pour in the cream.
- Add salt and nutmeg.
- Cut olives into thin rings and send to the pan to other ingredients.
- Stir the sauce and, without covering the pan with a lid, simmer it over low heat for 2-3 minutes.
- Remove the pan from the heat. Cover the sauce and let it brew for 10 minutes.
Decoration and serving
Cooked sauce is only half the dish. While it is infused and filled with aromas, it's time to cook the pasta. Creamy tuna sauce is suitable for all types of pasta. In the proposed recipe, it is served with spaghetti. The process of registration of the dish can be represented as follows:
- Boil 4 liters of water in a large saucepan. Salt to taste, add spaghetti. Cook them until cooked according to the instructions on the packaging.
- Throw the finished spaghetti into a colander and return it to the pan.
- Creamy tuna sauce can be crushed in a blender to make it smooth and uniform or to leave it in its original form.
- Add the sauce to the pan to the spaghetti and mix.
- Arrange the dish in plates. Sprinkle it with parsley and grated parmesan.
Pasta with fresh tuna in a creamy sauce
The next dish does not take much longer than the previous one. But instead of canned fish, fresh tuna and smoked salmon are added to the sauce, which adds a touch of piquancy. The recipe for cooking consists of the following steps:
- Tuna (200 g) and smoked or salted salmon (150 g) cut into small pieces.
- Grind basil, dill and garlic (1 clove).
- Boil 300 g of pasta in a large saucepan until cooked. See cooking time in the instructions on the packaging.
- In a frying pan with a thick bottom, heat olive oil (2 tbsp. L.) And add cream (30 g) to it.
- Fry garlic for 1 minute.
- Next add chopped fish. Fry it for 4 minutes, periodically stirring the ingredients in a pan.
- Cream with a fat content of 15–20% (300 ml) is warmed up. Pour them on top of the fish immediately.
- Simmer the sauce over low heat for 3 minutes.
- At this time, drain the water from the pasta. Add the paste to the creamy sauce with tuna (in the photo above you can see how it looks). If desired, mix the ingredients with Parmesan (50 g).
- Serve on a plate with lemon slices.
Tuna pasta in tomato and cream sauce
It is difficult to believe that this dish is made from canned fish, so rich it tastes. Such a paste is prepared with tuna and cream sauce with the addition of grated tomatoes. The result is a very interesting combination of ingredients and excellent taste of the dish. The recipe for cooking consists of the following:
- Hand out the garlic (2 cloves) with the flat side of the knife.
- Heat olive oil with butter in a pan (2 tbsp. Each.). Add crushed garlic. Fry it for 40 seconds, then remove from the pan.
- Put the chopped onion into the aromatic oil. Fry it until soft.
- Pour white wine (100 ml) into the onion pan. Evaporate it for 1–2 minutes. During this time, a sharp alcoholic smell should go away.
- Grind the tomatoes in their own juice (300 ml) in a blender or grind. Add the resulting mashed potatoes to the onion in the pan. Boil it until a thick consistency. Optionally add lemon juice (1 tbsp.) And zest to the sauce.
- Pour 150 ml of fat cream and mix.
- Add 360 g canned tuna (2 cans), after draining the liquid from it.
- Gently mix the pieces of fish with the sauce. Warm it up for 1 minute.
- Cook 400 g of the paste until cooked. Put it in the pan to the sauce and mix. After a minute, serve immediately while it is hot.
Pasta recipe in creamy mustard sauce with milk
The main advantage of this dish is that both pasta and sauce are cooked simultaneously in one pan. The step-by-step cooking process looks like this:
- In a large saucepan with a thick bottom in olive oil (1 tsp), fry the finely chopped half of the onion and garlic (2 cloves).
- After 2 minutes, add 500 g of paste to the pan.
- Pour 2 cups of water, 2 ¼ cup of chicken or meat broth, 1 cup of milk. Add salt and pepper to taste.
- Cook pasta over medium heat until al dente. Drain the liquid.
- Add tuna and cream sauce to the paste from milk, cream (2 tbsp. Each), Dijon mustard and lemon juice (1 tbsp. Each). Add salt and pepper to taste.
- Cover the pan and let the paste stand to thicken the sauce. Sprinkle with herbs, grated cheese and black pepper.
From the amount of ingredients indicated in the recipe, 6 servings of the dish are obtained. This is enough to feed a large family with dinner. The calorie content of pasta with tuna in a creamy sauce is 479 kcal in 1 serving. Cooking time is 30 minutes.
Pasta with tuna, sun-dried tomatoes and cream cheese
The cooking time for the next dish is exactly 15 minutes. Just so much is needed to boil the water and boil the pasta. Sauce is also being prepared at the same time. It is not heat treated. Just mix the ingredients and you're done. It turns out a delicious and beautiful dish. Above is a photo of pasta with tuna in a creamy sauce.
The recipe includes the following cooking steps:
- Put a pot of water on the fire, bring it to a boil and cook the pasta.
- While preparing pasta, make the sauce.
- Drain liquid or oil from canned tuna. Put the fish (150 g) in a blender bowl.
- Add the sun-dried tomatoes (10-12 pcs.). Grind the ingredients until mashed, adding a little water in which the pasta was cooked.
- Cream cheese "Philadelphia" (160 g) knead with a fork.
- In a pan with pasta, add cheese and sauce from tuna and sun-dried tomatoes. Stir the dish, season it with olive oil (2 tbsp. L.), As well as salt and pepper, if necessary.
- The finished dish can be decorated with whole sun-dried tomatoes and green peas.
Features of preparation and recommendations
The following tips will help make the dish much tastier and healthier:
- When purchasing canned food for cooking pasta with sauce, you should pay attention to the composition of the product. Tuna can be preserved in its own juice or in oil. In the first case, the calorie content of the fish is 96 kcal per 100 grams, and in the second - 230 kcal. Accordingly, a dish made from tuna in its own juice will be less high-calorie, one might even say that it is dietary.
- Particular attention should be paid to spices, and especially salt. The fact is that canned tuna has a fairly rich taste. Therefore, if salt is added to the paste or cream, the dish will turn out to be too salted.
- For the preparation of pasta, you should choose pasta only from durum wheat and cook them until al dente. The dish is better.