Lemon Caper Tuna Pasta

I really do believe magic happens when you pair simple ingredients and create one powerful dish. When I told my husband that I was going to use his precious tuna cans to make a pasta dish he thought I was from another planet. He loves his tuna, but in a salad or a sandwich, not anything else.

Once I proceeded to tell him I was going to zest a lemon, now he became curious in what he was going to be eating. Now this is not a novel idea, it’s been done many times, but it’s one of those dishes that when you enjoy it, you are just enthralled with how these flavours are making such a huge impact on your taste buds.

I have to say that my husband was impressed, looking at me as if I was some gourmet chef, when really all I did was rummage through our pantry and put a couple of things together in one pan. Try this dish, you will not be sorry you did. In fact, you won’t need to eat anything else after that.

Now if you don’t have spaghetti, any pasta will do really. If you really like your tuna and have more to spare, add an extra can in your dish. The point is, there are no exact measurements, you could definitely add more or less. However, if you’re going to use the whole jar of capers and its brine, I would hold off on the salt til the end to avoid taking over the flavour profile.

Lemon Caper Tuna Pasta

Ingredients:

• 1 pkg. of spaghetti (500 g)
• 1 jar of capers (with the brine)
• 2 -3 tuna cans
• zest of 1 medium sized lemon
• juice of half a lemon
• a pinch of salt
• a dash of pepper
• 1 tbsp. of olive oil
• two gloves of garlic
• parmigiano cheese (optional)

Directions:

1. Boil water in a medium size pot.
2. Once the pasta is in, take a large sized sautee pan and heat it on the stove.
3. Take two cloves of garlic and slice them into slivers.
4. Add a tablespoon of olive oil onto the heated pan, along with the garlic.
5. Once the garlic has begun to crisp up, add the capers with the brine as well (this will add to the flavour of the dish).
6. Zest lemon right into the pan and later cut the same lemon in half and juice one half right into the pan.
7. Before adding the pasta, I will add in the tuna and have all the ingredients simmer together just before the pasta joins in.
8. Add the pasta to the sautee pan, give it a nice stir.
9. Add a ladle of pasta water into the dish to ensure the spaghetti does not dry out and it will add a little added flavour to the dish.
10. Serve with parmigiano reggiano, but you don’t have to, the flavour profile is already quite powerful.

Enjoy!

Antonietta xo