Pasta with Tuna, Tomato, and Green Olives               

 tags (edit): Fine Cooking Magazine @Vogel @Try Soon! Pasta Seafood Main Dish  

 

Keep a stock of canned tuna, green olives, and canned tomatoes around, and you can make this pasta at a moment's notice. Don't skip the fennel seed -- it compliments the tomatoes and tuna and pulls this sauce together. Adjust the garlic and red chile flakes to your taste, too, but be generous.

Ingredients

4 tablespoon Extra Virgin Olive Oil
2 to 3 large Cloves Garlic Minced
pinch Red Chile Flakes
3 tablespoon Flat-Leaf Parsley Finely Minced
2 cup Canned Tomatoes Very Finely Minced With Juices
1 teaspoon Fennel Seed Crushed
1 can Tuna In Olive Oil Well Drained And Ve
1/3 cup Green Olives Pitted And Quartered
to taste Salt
3/4 pound Dried Pasta Penne Rigatoni Spaghetti Perciatelli
 

Instructions
 Bring a large pot of salted water to a boil over high heat.

Heat 3 tablespoons of the olive oil in a 12-inch skillet over moderate heat. Add the garlic, chile flakes, and 2 tablespoons of the parsley and saute briefly to release the fragrance of the seasonings. Add the tomatoes and fennel seed. Bring to a simmer, adjust the heat to maintain the simmer, and cook, stirring occasionally, until the sauce is thick and well-blended, about 10 minutes.

Stir in the minced tuna and then the olives. When the pasta is a few minutes away from being finished, return the tomato sauce to moderate heat and enough of the hot pasta water -- about 2/3 cup -- to thin the sauce to a nice consistency. Keep the sauce warm over low heat.

When the pasta is about 1 minute shy of al dente, scoop out and set aside 1/2 cup of the pasta cooking water and then drain the pasta. Return the pasta to the hot pot and stir in the sauce. Cook together over moderately low heat for about 1 minute, stirring and adding some of the reserved pasta water if needed to thin the sauce. Take the skillet off the heat and stir in the remaining 1 tablespoon of olive oil. Serve the pasta immediately in warm bowls, garnishing each portion with a little of the remaining parsley.



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Yields: 4 Servings
     Fine Cooking magazine, January 2002, page 106

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