Every home cook, regardless of their skill level, should have a handful of reliable recipes to suit a variety of occasions and palates. From special occasion fancy fare, to everyday mid-week or lazy day family meals. A repertoire of “go to” dishes that can be prepared with confidence and in the case of family meals, without too much fuss or multiple trips to the grocery store. 


Terrific Tuna Pasta is one of my “go to” family food options. It is neither decadent, nor expensive and certainly not difficult to whip up even if you have only started thinking about what to make for dinner during the early evening witching hour when young children (and exhausted multi-tasking parents) are at their most unsettled. 

There are three essential elements of a truly terrifically tasty tuna pasta. 

1. TUNA – must, must, must be good quality. Do not even attempt to use anything cheap and nasty that resembles cat food. I always use the Sirena brand in the distinctive yellow tin with a picture of a little mermaid perched on top. 

2. PASTA – again go for a good quality dried pasta made with sturdy durum wheat. This will hold it’s shape once cooked and smothered with sauce and also tastes so much better than an inferior quality pasta. The shape of pasta used is entirely up to you. I prefer a medium sized spaghetti or fusilli which traps morsels of tuna and tomato within its coils. I have tried fresh pasta but this somehow doesn’t complement tinned tuna, although it is a perfect partner with seared chunks of fresh blue fin tuna.

3. PARMESAN CHEESE – I’m referring to the hard, sharp tasting Italian Grana Padano variety, freshly grated into and over the tuna pasta. Please do not substitute with a shelf stable pseudo-Parmesan version purchased in haste from your supermarket. 

My husband introduced me to tuna pasta when we first met 16 years ago. His version of this dish is so straightforward and simply involves tossing good quality tinned tuna through hot pasta with tinned sweetcorn, Parmesan cheese, salt and pepper. It is delicious and in fact our children cheer – yes, audibly cheer – when they hear Dad is making his signature dish. Having said that, they also wolf down my version – which includes a few extra ingredients. It always makes me smile at their enthusiastic response to this dish lovingly turned out by their devoted father. 

Terrific Tuna Pasta is best eaten as soon as it is made. The recipe below will adequately serve 8 adults. 

Ingredients
Extra virgin olive oil
2 cloves garlic crushed or finely chopped
2 small or 1 x medium zucchini grated
2 x punnets sweet grape or cherry tomatoes sliced in half
1 tablespoon vinno cotto or 1 heaped teaspoon brown sugar
1 x 410 g tin of sweet corn kernels
3 x 185 g tins of tuna in olive oil
sea salt and ground pepper to taste – I use about 1 teaspoon of sea salt
100 g freshly grated Parmesan cheese with extra available for cheese aficionados like my brother Milan.
Good quality dried pasta cooked al dente, meaning to the bite, definitely not sloppy! Follow the cooking instructions on the box or packet which vary according to the type of pasta used. Allow 100 grams of pasta per adult.

Put a large pot of salted water onto the stove to boil. Once it is bubbling rapidly, add your pasta and cook as per instructions. 

As soon as you put the pot of water on to boil, start your sauce. In another medium sized saucepan, pour in about 2 tablespoons of olive oil over a medium heat. Add the garlic and zucchini and sauté for about 2 minutes stirring to avoid burning the mixture which would result in a bitter flavour. 

Add the tomatoes, vinno cotto, salt and pepper. Simmer on a low heat stirring occasionally, right up until the pasta is ready. Add a couple of spoonfuls of pasta water to the tomato mixture when it starts to stick to the bottom of the pot. 

Turn off the heat, add the corn and tuna which should be well drained in a sieve or colander and roughly flaked with a fork. 

Drizzle the drained pasta with extra olive oil to prevent it from binding together and toss through the sauce. 

Grate over the Parmesan cheese and call everyone to dinner. 

This evening I served my Terrific Tuna Pasta with pickled gherkins and fragrant Roasted Ruby Red Capsicums hot from the oven. 

To make this fragrant side dish, wash and halve 4 large, firm red capsicums removing the stalks and seeds. 

Put the capsicums into a preheated fan forced oven at 225 degrees for about 20 minutes with a drizzle of olive oil and a grind of sea salt. I popped them into the oven just as I started to make the main meal. 

As soon as their skins stated to blacken, remove from the oven, peel off most of the skin using a fork and gently slice them into large thick pieces into a serving bowl. Wonderful served hot, but equally delicious at room temperature layered with feta cheese on crusty bread the next day. 

The aroma of the roasting capsicums filled my house, which still smells divine more than three hours later.