Tuna Fish Spaghetti

Well no, it wasn't with spaghetti tonight - "Tuna Fish Spaghetti" is just what we called it when my dad made it (or something similar) at home. And yes, this is akin to another recipe you've seen before. But this version omits the green olives and adds a little more tomato. There's nothing wrong with variations on a theme, folks, especially on a weeknight!

So here's this version, for the olive-averse:
2-3 cloves garlic, chopped
1 tbsp olive oil
Fresh parsley, chopped
2 Roma tomatoes, chopped and lightly salted
Red pepper flakes to taste
1-2 cans tuna fish in olive oil
1 can tomato sauce
1 lb pasta

Get your water boiling so that you can cook your pasta while you make the sauce.

Put the garlic, olive oil, and olive oil from your can of tuna in a pan and heat over medium-high. After a minute or so, add your tomatoes and parsley along with the chili flakes to taste. Let that cook for a couple minutes more, turn the heat to medium, and add the tuna, crushing the tuna into smaller chunks with a wooden spoon. Let the flavors cook together for a couple more minutes, then stir in your tomato sauce. Bring the sauce to a boil, then turn down to low and allow to simmer. Add more flakes if you want 'em. Cook for about 10-15 more minutes. If you time it right, your pasta will be done cooking right around the time the sauce is ready (although you can always cook the sauce a little longer if you want a deeper flavor - just keep the sauce on low and partially covered to make sure it doesn't dry out.) Add the pasta right to the sauce, toss, and serve.

Pasta Salad with Tuna; Fruit Salad

Summer weather usually calls for minimum stove time (although I generally find myself craving excessively hot food in the summer, and cold stuff in the winter), and this is the perfect recipe for that. Alls ya gotta do stove-wise is boil water for the pasta and the hard-boiled eggs. This was also a summer favorite my mom used to make when I was growing up. And just cuz we were feeling extra-healthy, Joef made a fruit salad for dessert, to boot.

PASTA SALAD WITH TUNA
1/2 farfalle or other similar pasta
1 handful snow peas
1 handful grape tomatoes, halved
1 small package baby carrots, cut into thin rounds
1 handful frozen peas, defrosted
2 hard-boiled eggs, halved and sliced
2 cans albacore tuna
Balsamic vinegar
Olive oil
Salt to taste
Grated parmesan for serving

Start the water for the pasta boiling at the same time as you start to boil the eggs. In the meantime, prep the ingredients, patting veggies dry as you wash them. Combine in a bowl and add the tuna. When the eggs are ready, run them under cold water to cool (before and after peeling), then slice and add to the other ingredients. When the pasta is ready, run it under cold water and drain well. Combine everything together and drizzle with olive oil, then add balsamic (I added about 2 capfuls - always less balsamic than olive oil). Add salt to taste, mix to combine. Serve with grated parmesan cheese.

FRUIT SALAD
Bananas, apples, blueberries, and nectarines, sliced and topped with a squeeze of lemon juice to prevent browning.

"Nicoise" Sandwiches

More tuna tonight. And, somewhat predictably, more arugula and more goat brie. This is another recipe you can really play around with according to taste. For example, Joef always put olives (another theme!) - usually kalmata - on his. Tonight, I added hard-boiled egg. I also used the Hawkwind Heat mustard (see "Cheeseburgers!") - but usually I mix some stone ground mustard together with balsamic vinegar and use that on the sandwich. I like the Hawkwind mustard, but for this meal, I'm going to go back to the balsamic-mustard mix.

Anyway, that's a lot of preamble for a simple recipe:
French bread
Sliced tomato
Arugula
Goat cheese brie
Tuna in olive oil
Balsamic vinegar + stone-ground mustard
Kalmata olives, optional
Hard-boiled egg, sliced, optional

Sandwich it up and enjoy!

Rigatoni with Tuna and Green Olives

This is my own recipe, and a good weeknight meal since it takes very little time and pretty simple, around-the-house ingredients.

Specifically:
3/4 lb pasta
4 tbsp (? I don't measure this - just for drizzling in the pan) olive oil
1 small can tomato sauce
2-3 large cloves of garlic, minced
2 cans tuna fish in olive oil
1 jar green olives (unstuffed), rinsed to ease the saltiness and halved (pitted, too)
1/4 cup olive juice from olives
2-3 medium tomatoes, chopped

Start boiling the water for the pasta and cook the pasta as you work on the sauce. In a large saucepan over medium heat, drizzle olive oil, then add the oil from the tuna. Let it heat a little, then add the garlic and let it simmer (as a rule, never let garlic burn or brown). Add the tomato sauce, tomatoes, olive juice, and stir. Give it some time to start bubbling lightly and to soak up the flavor of the olive oil and garlic, then turn it to low. When the pasta is about five minutes from done, add the olives and the tuna and mix into the sauce. Combine with pasta and serve.