I was so sceptic about this flavour combination that I honestly didn’t believe that it could actually work. But it somehow works. It works so good that I made it three times in last two weeks. Ups.
To be honest, I really don’t like pasta sauces with tuna, not even slightly. But when I saw Antonio Carluccio sauteing pancetta, porcini, onions….mmm I could smell all that lovely aromas just from starring at TV, and then he goes and adds tinned tuna to the pan! Antonio really?! When did you last time add tinned tuna to that lovely mixture of porcini, pancetta and tomatoes? Probably, never. Right? But trust me, this w o r k s, you will get that smokey and spicy sauce, not fishy at all, and you will lick your plate over and over again. Your welcome.
I wasn’t planning to put this recipe on blog but some of you asked for it so here it goes :)
Porcini&Tuna Tagliatelle
Ingredients – Serves 2
⋅ 2 tbsp olive oil
⋅ 100g tinned tuna
⋅ 1 small brown onion
⋅ 1 garlic
⋅ 20g dried porcini mushrooms (rehydrated in a bowl of water, drained – soaking liquid reserved)
⋅ 150g chopped tomatoes (tinned or fresh)
⋅ 50g smoked pancetta/bacon
⋅ fresh parsley
⋅ pinch of sugar
⋅ red chilli or cayenne pepper
⋅ salt and pepper
⋅ freshly grated parmesan cheese
⋅ 200g tagliatelle
Method
1. Put a large non stick frying pan over a medium-high heat and add the olive oil and finely chopped onion and garlic. Gently fry for 5 minutes, stirring occasionally, until softened. Add bacon and fry it for 2min before adding chopped tomatoes and pinch of sugar, cook for about 15min under the low heat. Then add the soaked porcini mushrooms and a splash of the soaking liquid. Stir in the tuna and fresh parsley and season to taste, with salt, chilli and freshly ground black pepper, cook for additional 5min.
2. Cook tagliatelle in boiling salted water until al dente. Remove the pasta from the pan with tongs (do not drain off the water) and add to the pan with the sauce. Add a splash of the cooking water and mix well to coat the pasta in the sauce. Serve immediately with a drizzle of olive oil, fresh parsley and parmesan cheese if you like.
steak & merlot 