Tuna Pantry Pasta
Quite often, dinner starts in the pantry.
It’s the art of what can you rustle up with what’s left in the house. A packet of pasta in the cupboard, some tins on the next shelf, a lemon rolling around in the fruit bowl somewhere.
This is the kind of midweek cooking we often fall back on when the weeks got away from us or we can’t really be bothered to cook – good flavour, plenty of nourishment, and dinners that feel far more intentional than they probably should.
This Tuna Pantry Pasta, nails the brief. Our bronze die extruded spelt spaghetti catches all the silky lemony sauce beautifully, finished with our new Chunky Classic Style Tuna. The same premium MSC-certified tuna in organic EVOO just made for slightly more economical everyday eating.
Optional greens folded through at the end make it feel a little more complete, but honestly, it’s perfect exactly as it is.
Serves 2 And easily doubled – just increase the pasta and tuna depending on how many mouths you’re feeding)
Ingredients
- 250g Stock Merchant Organic Spelt Spaghetti
- 3 x 80g tins Stock Merchant Chunky Classic Style Tuna in organic EVOO
- 3 garlic cloves, finely sliced
- 2 Stock Merchant Anchovy fillets, finely chopped (optional, but worth it)
- A generous pinch of chilli flakes
- A small handful of capers
- Zest and juice of 1 lemon
- A good handful of flat leaf parsley, roughly chopped
- Sea salt and cracked black pepper
- A few handfuls of rocket or spinach, optional
Method
Bring a large pot of generously salted water to the boil and cook the spaghetti until just shy of al dente. Before draining, scoop out a mug of the pasta water.
Pour the olive oil from the tuna tins into a large pan over medium heat. Add the garlic, anchovies and chilli flakes and cook for a minute or two until softened and fragrant.
Add the capers, then toss through the spaghetti with a good splash of pasta water. The starch from the pasta water and olive oil will come together into a silky sauce that clings beautifully to the bronze die extruded spaghetti.
Turn off the heat. Add the tuna, lemon zest and juice, parsley and another splash of pasta water if needed. Toss gently — you want some of those beautiful chunky pieces of tuna to hold their shape.
If you like, fold through a few handfuls of rocket or spinach at the end for something a little greener.
Finish with extra parsley, cracked black pepper and a generous pinch of sea salt.
Dinner, sorted.
Why This Pantry Pasta Works
This is the sort of dinner that happens when there are good things in the cupboard.
A packet of pasta, tuna on hand, garlic, lemon, capers. Maybe some greens in the fridge if you’re feeling organised. It’s not overly planned or particularly complicated – which is probably why we make it so often.
The bronze die extruded Spelt Spaghetti really earns its place here. Its rougher texture catches all the silky lemony olive oil sauce beautifully, while the spelt flour gives it a little more nourishment, an ancient grain used in the
And our Chunky Classic Style Tuna was kind of made for dinners like this. The same premium MSC-certified tuna in organic extra virgin olive oil, just in a more economical style for tossing through pastas, piling onto toast, folding through rice, or pulling together a quick midweek dinner without thinking too hard about it.
Simple pantry ingredients, done properly, always seem to work.
