While summer often signals a time of rest and relaxation, the women of Three Many Cooks have been hard at work the last few months with a few important deadlines and a lot of travel. Most importantly, we were finishing the edits on our book and also putting the finishing touches on a brand redesign of the blog (which will go live very soon) – a project we started working on last November! These were both important projects, but they have taken time away from our beloved blog. With these projects mostly off our plates, we hope to get back to our regularly scheduled posting immediately!
For now, here’s a recipe for Tuna Pasta with Burrata, a simple and satisfying supper. I tasted a similar dish while in Chianti with my dear friends, Deb and Rod Smith, when we were in Italy last month on a Jovial Culinary Getaway. In fact, I ordered the homemade papardelle with wild boar ragu (I’m a sucker for anything with the word “ragu” in it) and they ordered the tuna pasta with burrata. But when our plates arrived, I knew they had “won” the lunch-ordering game. Like most Italian dishes, there were so few ingredients but the combination was perfection – a light but potent tomato sauce, flavorful, good quality tuna, and the creaminess of the burrata which you stir into the dish. This is my attempt to recreate it at home.
After I got back from my trip, I went straight to Eataly to stock up on Italian goods, so I was able to buy a very good quality ‘tonno’ (tuna) packed in oil. As with all simple dishes with few ingredients, the better quality the tuna the better, but if you don’t have a specialty shop nearby, canned tuna in oil from the supermarket will do just great.
- Salt
- 1 box (16 ounces) pasta, such as strozzapretti shape
- 2 tablespoons olive oil
- 1 large onion, cut into small dice
- 1 can (28 ounces) tomato puree
- 1 to 2 cans (7 ounces each) tuna packed in olive oil
- 1 large ball (about 8 ounces) buratta
- Bring a generous 2 quarts of water and 1 tablespoon of salt to boil over medium-high heat. Add pasta and, using package cooking times as a guide, cook until just tender. Drain, reserving ½ cup of the pasta cooking liquid. Return pasta to the pot.
- Meanwhile, heat oil over medium-high heat. Add onion, reduce heat to medium-low and cook, stirring frequently, until tender, about 7 minutes. Add tomato puree and continue to cook until flavors blend and sauce thicken slightly, about 10 minutes. Gently stir in the tuna and its oil, leaving some of the tuna in chunks. Add sauce to pasta and gently toss. Break up buratta into large pieces and gently toss to incorporate. Serve immediately, stirring some of the pasta cooking liquid, if you like, for a moister consistency.
I have always liked pasta and tuna together. Probably leftover from tuna noodle casserole from my childhood. That dish in our family had potato chips on it. That was the ONLY time potato chips were ever at my house. So thus is the story of me, tuna and pasta. Ha!
We had this tuna pasta with burrata for dinner last night and I have to say it is the best pasta I’ve eaten recently.
Hi – I will try this recipe today. I have a variation on this. Mine is – draining away water from a can of Tuna, cook chopped onion, bell peppers and mushroom until tender in some olive oil and add the tuna. Boil 250 grams of pasta separately and mix with the tuna and vegetables. You may add chopped cilantro and little garlic salt and pepper.