Super easy and tasty meal
I made this up, but it uses standard Italian ingredients and my “making it up” included drawing on memories of cooking previous dishes, so this may be a well recognized recipe. But I was winging it at the time:
Take one 6.7 oz jar of Tonnino tuna (line-caught yellowfin tuna, hand-packed) with oregano and olive oil. (It’s so tasty that I’m buying some fresh oregano to make my own olive-oil infusion of it.)
Pour the oil into a small sauté pan. I also add just a little more olive oil. (I favor Whole Foods Greek extra-virgin olive oil.)
Add 1 pint of tiny plum tomatoes—the size of cherry tomatoes, but plum shaped.
Stir to coat the tomatoes with oil, sprinkle with salt and pepper and just a little crushed red pepper (not enough to make it spicy, just enough to give it some body).
Put those in a pre-heated 400º F oven for 25-30 minutes: you want almost all the tomatoes to break open.
While that cooks, bring a pot of water to boil and cook 2-3 ounces of cut pasta. I used medium shells, which worked nicely. When the pasta is done, drain it.
Remove sauté pan from the oven when the tomatoes are done. Put the pan on the still-hot burner where the pasta cooked (or turn the burner on low if it’s not still hot), and add:
1 minced clove of garlic
When you can smell the garlic fragrance, add:
1 cup finely chopped flat-leaf parsley (enough so that the parsley is the greens in the dish)
1/2 cup pitted Saracena (or Kalamata) olives
The tuna from the jar
Heat and cook briefly, until the parsley wilts, breaking up the tuna into small pieces.
Add the pasta, stir well to mix, and serve.
It’s extremely tasty. Ask The Wife.
UPDATE: Some variations.
