Pasta AND Tuna.... can a dish get any tastier?

As much as I hate the idea of eating far too many large fish... I keep the odd can or two of 'dophin-friendly' (whatever that's supposed to mean) and Choice-selected 400g tins of Tuna in my cupboard for such a day as Sunday.

Sunday I worked in the garden. It was a big day.  My family watched telly and played with the dog.  I reclaimed a small parcel of land that had begun environmental warfare on my original plan.  At the end of the long day... I was buggered. (That's 'tired' in Austalian slang in case you had just arched your eyebrows considerably).

This is not quite the meal that cooks itself, but it comes close.  I once followed a recipe I had copied from our local pre-school.  I ate with the children a few times in a previous life, and really enjoyed this Tuesday and Friday lunch meal, or something close to this.  The recipe disappeared a long time ago, but the tastes remain memorable:  

So from memory, the ingredients consist of the following:

Pasta or Rice - whichever gluten or gluten-free lifestyle you and/or your family are adhering to.
400g can of tuna (drained)
400g can of any of the following SOUPS (Chicken, Cream of Chicken, Asparagus or Celery)
bunch of fresh asparagus (or a canned/drained)
1 or 2 tomatoes
1 onion

Fresh breadcrumbs & grated cheese for the topping

STEP ONE:

Cook the pasta or rice.

STEP TWO:

Turn the oven on to 180/350;

STEP THREE: 

Pull out a skillet and gently fry up the onion, asparagus and tomato - gently - just to take the crunch and sting out of the onion.  Turn it off.

STEP FOUR:

While the vegies are softening, tip the canned soup and drained tuna into a casserole dish.

STEP FIVE:

Add the vegies to the casserole dish with the soup and tuna

STEP SIX:

Add the pasta or rice to the casserole dish, fold it all together until it's mixed:  Don't have all the soup in one gluggy bit in the middle and the tuna staying in a corner on the other side of the vegetables.  So I guess I should have said, make sure your casserole dish will hold a fair whack of tuna casserole.

THE TOPPING:

Throw 2 pieces of fresh bread into a food processor and process till it look .... like breadcrumbs!  Add 1/2 to 1 cup of grated cheese.  Mix it all together, spread it out on top of the casserole.  Make it look pretty with either some paprika or chilli.  Whatever your tastebuds desire

Bake for 20 minutes covered, then another 10 minutes uncovered with the temperature up a few notches to make the topping crunchy.

Leave the casserole out of the over for 5 to 10 minutes to cool down before eating it.  Yum!  My family give this a 9/10.  The reason it's not 10 is because while I'm cooking it, everyone is convinced they're not fond of tuna... then they eat it.






Should have had a photo here of it out of the oven... hot and sumptuous.  But we ate it instead.

Clean out the bottom of the Fridge Pasta

You can use ANY vegetable and ANY pasta:  Trial and error will tell you whether it's a good combination or not.  Besides, you're cleaning out your fridge, you must be hungry.
The essentials are:  Pasta, Bacon & Cream

I started with these:

I pulled out my trusty camping cookware, just because I love it - and it's great for bacon and sloooow cooking.  I used the billy because it fits all the Fettuccine into it.  By the end of the cooking process proper, the frypan wont be big enough, but that wont stop the end result of the meal!

Let's Cook:

Fill the saucepan with water and a pinch of salt.  While you wait for the water to boil (for the Fettuccine or other pasta) chop up the vegies and strips of bacon (you could use pastrami, salami, chicken or ham...)

 Because I used bacon - complete with fatty bits and all, I did not use butter or oil, I just added it to the pan, stirred it round and round and when it started to sizzle, turned the flame right down and talked to my daughter for a while....

If you want your bacon dead and buried, cook it till it's just under charcoal before adding the vegies.  I like it to still have a bit of form for this dish so as the fat on the bacon became translucent and the edges of the bacon looked a bit redder than the rest of it, I added the vegies

this is a tricky timing thing now.  By this time the water should be boiling for your pasta and you've thrown the pasta in and cooked it according to the directions (normally 10 minutes on rolling boil).

Keep the vegies and bacon sizzling and slapping each other at a temperature you'd normally fry an egg at:  Low heat and watch the goings on,

In the meantime, grab at least 3 eggs and say half/three quarters a cup of cream (sour cream, fresh cream... all the same in this pot) NO SALT IF YOU'RE USING PIGGY PRODUCTS!!.  As we are cleaning out the fridge, your eggs may not be the happiest of foods.  Perhaps you've lured them out of a dark corner where they have been forgotten for a while.  If your eggs are looking a bit sad, make them happy before you beat them, cook them and eat them.

mix them up with cream, till it's a sloppy, thicker than scrambled eggs mix

.

add it to the bacon and vegie mix

Stir, stir, stir..  you don't want an omelette.  Just as the mixture thickens around the edges TURN THE HEAT OFF

give it a few moments to itself so it can think about things .  It may not look exactly appetizing, but believe me it will taste superb.  There's always an interesting twist to a 'clean out the fridge pasta'.

Meanwhile, your pasta should be ready... drain...leave it draining for a moment (only a moment - any longer, you best put some butter or oil on it because pasta, like most things that are not at their best on their own, tends to get clingy...)

Clingy, co-ey, pasta remnants:  has one good time with a saucepan and wont let go!

I did mention that the frypan was going to be a tad undersized

And there you have it.  No matter how un-sensational this looks, I know from experience and thirty years of el-cheapo cooking, that this particular dish rarely makes it to the table before it gets shoveled into hungry mouths.  the smell is amazing, the taste is delicious and though it has a poor reputation for glamour, it's a great 'night before shopping' meal and 'slap together at the last minute.  Goes great wit broccoli, peas, zucchinis (courgettes) snow peas, asparagus, chicken... ah heck, just empty your fridge into the pan!