Perusing the Thanksgiving Issue of Food and Wine magazine, I stumbled upon a couple of interesting recipes… The first was a Tandoori Roast Turkey. It may be great for a fun gathering any time of the year, but I couldn’t see cooking it for Thanksgiving Dinner. I love foods, flavors, and spices from around the world, but Thanksgiving is when I want the same core dishes – with the same core flavors – I grew up with. That’s not to say I won’t enjoy any number of different side dishes – green bean casserole and sweet potatoes with marshmallows being two exceptions. There is room at the table for a score of interchangeable delights – but the turkey, stuffing, mashed potatoes, and gravy are sacrosanct.
I’m old. Humor me.
The second recipe I found was Samin’s Spicy Tuna Pantry Pasta from Samin Nosrat. We bought Salt Fat Acid Heat while watching the first episode of the TV show. I’d love to have her as my next door neighbor.
It was the perfect pasta dinner – rich, hearty, flavorful. It was so easy to pull together and was on the table in less than 30 minutes! And it really was a “Pantry Pasta” – we had everything we needed without having to leave the house!
Samin’s Spicy Tuna Pantry Pasta
Samin Nosrat
- Extra-virgin olive oil
- 1 onion, cut into 3/8-inch chunks
- Kosher salt
- 4 garlic cloves, thinly sliced
- 2 anchovy fillets, roughly chopped
- Calabrian chile paste, to taste
- 1 tablespoon tomato paste
- 1 pound uncooked spaghetti, bucatini, linguine, or penne
- 1 (14-ounce) can cherry tomatoes
- 1/4 cup finely grated Parmigiano-Reggiano cheese, plus more for serving
- 2 (5- or 6-ounce) cans or jars olive oil–packed Spanish or Italian tuna, undrained
- 1 lemon
- Finely chopped fresh flat-leaf parsley, for garnish
Bring a large pot of well-salted water to a boil over high. Set a large nonreactive skillet over medium heat, and add 3 tablespoons oil. When oil shimmers, add the onion and a pinch of salt. Cook, stirring occasionally, until the onion is tender and just beginning to brown, about 7 minutes.
Move the onion to the edges of the skillet, and add 2 tablespoons oil and the garlic. Cook, stirring constantly, until fragrant, about 1 minute. Add the anchovies, chile paste to taste, and tomato paste; cook, gently breaking up the paste with a wooden spoon, until the oil turns uniformly orange and the anchovies dissolve, about 2 minutes.
Add the pasta to the boiling water, and cook until nearly al dente, 7 to 12 minutes, depending on the shape. Reserve 1 cup pasta water, and drain the pasta.
Increase the heat under the skillet to medium, and add the cherry tomatoes. Ladle a little reserved pasta water into the cherry tomato can, swirl it around, and add it to the pan. Bring the sauce to a simmer over medium, using the back of the spoon to break up the tomatoes. Cook, stirring occasionally, until the tomatoes begin to appear jammy, 4 to 6 minutes.
Stir in the Parmigiano-Reggiano, tuna, and tuna oil from can. Taste the sauce, and, taking into consideration that you’ll still be adding some salted pasta water, adjust the seasoning with salt and chile paste as desired.
Increase the heat under the skillet to medium-high, and add the drained pasta to the skillet, tossing with the sauce until well coated. As the sauce continues to cook and thicken onto the noodles, add pasta water, a few tablespoons at a time, to loosen it up as much as needed. The sauce may also need another tablespoon or so of olive oil. This last step is all about tasting, stirring, and tinkering until the sauce comes together to coat the pasta in just the right way, ideally at precisely the same moment the noodles cross over to al dente.
Grate the zest of the lemon over the pasta, and add the parsley. Toss again; taste and add lemon juice, if desired. Serve immediately, topped with more chile paste and Parmigiano-Reggiano, if desired.
I didn’t have canned cherry tomatoes – to be perfectly honest, I’ve really never seen them at any of our local stores – but Trader Joe’s has canned Marzano Tomatoes that I buy all the time and they worked perfectly.
I used bucatini and the entire dish was excellent! Many thanks to Samin for yet another excellent recipe!
Since great pasta needs fresh bread, I cut off a pound of the dough I made the other day and added chopped garlic, sundried-tomatoes, and some shredded cheese…
It came out pretty good.