I’m not big on magazines but one we never fail to buy is Yummy. I love the interesting food ideas, the drool-able kitchen stuff, the interesting restaurant reviews and of course, I love the recipes. I can’t always find the time to try new recipes out so when I do try one out and like how it turned out, they’re immediately filed for “repeat performances.” One of these recipes is Myra Santiago’s Spicy Tuna Marinara.

I always thought my Spicy Tuyo pasta recipe was the world’s easiest to prepare. I mean, the lowdown is to just sauté tomatoes in olive oil. This recipe proved me wrong—anybody who can open a can can whip up this wholesome, spicy, and hearty dish. Still, despite how good it turned out, I couldn’t resist tweaking the recipe to suit my own tastes. Basically, I added more tuna and capers to make it chunkier. If you’d like the original recipe, it can be found in the March 2007 issue. Otherwise, feel free to try this tweaked version.

Chunky Marinara v. 27 July 2008

2 400-gram cans stewed tomatoes
2 Tbsp olive oil
5 cloves garlic, crushed finely
2 150-gram cans Hot and Spicy Tuna
1/2 100-gram bottle capers
1/8 cup chopped fresh basil
Salt
Grated parmesan cheese
Pasta of your choice, prepared following package instructions

1. Saute garlic in olive oil. Add the tomatoes and simmer for 5 mins.
2. Add the tuna. Simmer on low for 10 minutes or until thick. Mash any whole / chunky tomatoes against the side of the pan for a more even consistency.
3. While simmering the sauce, throw your capers into a wire sieve and wash under running water. Drain. This is to lessen the saltiness of the capers.
4. Add the capers. Season the sauce with salt if desired. Turn off the heat then stir in the fresh basil. Serve over your pasta with a liberal dose of grated parmesan.

This sauce also freezes well. Prepare it in advance then store in freezer-safe containers then freeze. You may want to skip adding basil if you’re storing for future use; just add it after reheating.

To go with the pasta, I fried some ready-to-fry frozen Chicken Popcorn. I also made a small salad of sliced and seeded cucumbers, shredded imitation crabstick, salt and kewpie mayonnaise. To garnish, I added a cherry tomato and mint leaves.

This entry was posted on Sunday, July 27th, 2008 at 6:36 pm and is filed under bento, recipes. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.