No-cook pasta sauce with tuna and fresh plum tomatoes

This pasta recipe is especially great when:

• there is no time to make dinner but you still want delicious food
• the pantry is empty (or almost)
• it’s Monday
• before leaving for holidays
• returning from holidays
• unexpected dinner guests

This pasta has a sad version and a happy version. To make the happy version please use:

1. good quality pasta, preferably  bronze-drawn durum wheat pasta or fresh pasta and really good extra-virgin olive oil
2. high quality tuna packed in olive oil
3. fully ripe plum tomatoes

Recipe

Ingredients

• one 200 gr (6 1/2 ounce) can imported Italian tuna in olive oil, drained and separated into chunks
• 2 cloves garlic, very finely minced
• 250 gr (1/2 lb) cherry or plum tomatoes, halved
• 350 gr/ 10 ounces spaghetti
• 1 anchovy fillet
•  salt

Optional:

• 100 gr (3.5 oz) pitted and chopped Kalamata olives
• 1 tablespoon capers preserved in salt, washed and drained
• 1 tablespoon chopped fresh flat-leaf parsley leaves or fennel leaves
• 1 fresh chili pepper or black pepper

Directions

Using a shallow pan – a frying pan with high sides is ideal – sauté the garlic in 2 tablespoon olive oil over very low heat. Do not brown the garlicor it will become bitter. Add the anchovy and tuna chunks and stir until just warm. Add olives and/or capers if using.

Increase the heat, add tomatoes and sauté quickly until just warmed through. The tomatoes  should not cook and lose their shape. Add the chili pepper – if using – and turn off the heat.

The whole preparation should take no more than 5 min. Cover ad keep warm.

Meanwhile cook the pasta according to package instructions, or 1-2 min if using fresh pasta. The sauce is light and relatively dry, so it is suitable for spaghetti or short pasta shapes like the strozzapreti I used for the photo below. It does not work well with fettuccini or pappardelle which need a lot of sauce.

When the pasta is almost cooked, reserve a cupful of pasta water and reheat the sauce. Drain the pasta and transfer to the sauce pan.  Stir the pasta quickly into the sauce as explained here. Add up to one tablespoon per person of pasta water and stir for an additional minute  until the excess liquid is absorbed. Sprinkle with parsley and drizzle with your best extra virgin olive oil. Serve on warm plates at once.

Serves 2-3