TUNA PASTA BAKE

My favourite ever cookbook is Fays Family Food by Fay Ripley. Whilst I have always owned several cook books, namely Jamie Olivers, I rarely cooked from them and instead just admired the pictures and fantasised about the dishes (yes I know I am a weirdo)! However Fays first cookbook has so many delicious recipes which arent actually that complicated and it really encouraged me to start cooking. Before I bought this cook book, I could barely boil an egg. Fast forward 4 years and I now cook from scratch most nights. 

Here is one of the first recipes I ever cooked from Fays Family Food - it is simple to make and takes around 45 minutes.

Ingredients for 3-4 adults (depending on your appetite):

260g penne or fusilli pasta
100g sweetcorn (you can use frozen)
75g spinach (you can use frozen)
3 big leeks, washed and roughly chopped
1 tbsp olive oil
240g good quality canned tuna
200g grated mature cheddar cheese
1/2 tsp ground nutmeg
freshly ground black pepper
200g tub half fat creme fraiche
100g grated Parmesan

Preheat the oven to 200C fan / 220C / gas mark 7.

Slice the leeks and fry in a splash of olive oil for about 10 minutes.

Cook the pasta in salted boiling water until al dente - ours took 7 minutes.

About 3 minutes before the pasta is ready add the spinach and sweetcorn (5 minutes if using frozen vegetables).

Drain the pasta, spinach and sweetcorn and then pour back into the saucepan.

Add the tuna and leeks.

Add 200g creme fraiche.

Add 200g grated cheese.

Sprinkle with half a teaspoon of nutmeg and season with black pepper.

Give it a good stir so it is all mixed together and then pour into an ovenproof dish.

Sprinkle the grated Parmesan over the top (I also added a little bit more grated cheese as well)!

Put into the oven for 20 minutes and then serve!

This was so easy to make and really delicious - so good I broke my golden rule and had seconds! It is a great one for kids as it contains lots of hidden vegetables and tuna is full of iron and potassium….to be honest it is good for adults too!! This could be made the morning before and then reheated in the oven for slightly longer (30 minutes) and it is freezable as long as you do not use frozen vegetables.

A perfectly simple family supper.

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TUNA STEAKS WITH OLIVE AND PARSLEY SALAD

Pascal has been working so much recently, it feels like we have barely cooked together this past month or two. Plus we have both been trying to watch our weight which is never fun. However yesterday we had the whole day together and so decided to cook something healthy. Even though Pascal always moans about eating fish, he is a big fan of fresh tuna steaks so we decided to do this very quick and easy recipe from Olive magazine.

Ingredients for 2 people:

2 tuna steaks
Olive oil
15 pitted green olives, quartered
1 shallot, finely chopped
1 tsp capers
Half a lemon, zested and juiced
Half bunch of parsley, chopped
Cooked new potatoes to serve

The potatoes take the longest to cook, around 20 minutes, so start to boil these first.

In a bowl mix together the olives, shallot, capers, lemon zest and parsley. Season well and then add the lemon juice and olive oil to taste.

Rub the tuna steaks with some olive oil and season well, then cook in a very hot frying pan or griddle pan for 1-2 minutes on each side, depending on how rare you like it. We did about 90 seconds on each side.

Finally serve the tuna on some new potatoes, topped with the dressing and enjoy.

This was delicious - all the flavours really compliment each other - I do love this mixture of the olives and the capers, and even Pascal was highly complimentary and raved about it. 

We will definitely be making this a regular meal and without the potatoes, it is around 245 calories so can even work on the 5:2 diet - I would just add spinach or broccoli instead.

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TUNA SWEETCORN QUESADILLAS

It is turning into a regular occurrence that I decide to cook something for supper but then it takes a lot longer than I was expecting and I try to do too many things at once - I need to learn to concentrate on one thing at a time! My phone is becoming my own worst enemy as I am constantly texting or speaking on it and ignoring the job in hand and this was certainly the case here. Anyway despite a few errors and a few forgotten ingredients this was a great mid week supper.

Ingredients for 4 people:

4 tortillas 
1 x quesadilla spice mix
200g cheddar cheese
1 x 198g can sweetcorn, drained
1 x 160g can tuna chunks in brine, drained
1 x red or yellow pepper, deseeded and chopped
2 tbsp oil

Guacamole and salsa to serve - you can buy this ready made or I prepared it myself:

Salsa
15 cherry tomatoes, cut into quarters
Salt and Pepper
1 tbsp olive oil

Guacamole
1 avocado, mashed
3 cherry tomatoes, quartered
Half a small red onion, chopped (I didnt have this)
A bunch of coriander, chopped (I didnt have this)
Juice of half a lime
Salt and Pepper

To start prepare the salsa and guacamole - basically just mix all the ingredients together in a bowl and season to taste. Set aside.

Heat the oil in a frying pan and cook the peppers for 2-3 minutes.

Add the sweetcorn and tuna, and sprinkle over the quesadilla spice mix and 100ml water. Then stir together.

Preheat the oven to a low heat, this is to keep the first quesadilla warm while you cook the second.

Brush a large frying pan with the oil.

Add a tortilla and spread with half the tuna and sweetcorn mixture, salsa and cheese. Then place another tortilla on top and press down slightly.

Cook for a few minutes on each side until the tortilla browns and the cheese melts. Flipping the tortilla is not an easy process, I used a plate and a fish slice and managed not to drop it….just! Definitely dont attempt this while on the phone!

Repeat the process with the remanding ingredients.

Finally serve with a dollop of guacamole and enjoy.

I do love a quesadilla and these were fantastic, I will definitely be making them again. Arabella apparently isnt such a fan however she did polish off her plate so they cant be too bad. If you are vegetarian you can swap the tuna for courgettes and aubergine and I might even substitute the tuna for prawns next time….watch this space!

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TUNA FRESH TOMATO PASTA WITH LEMON THYME

I was at a real loss at what to cook tonight - Arabella poo-pooed all my suggestions and so I decided to wing it and just went to the supermarket in hope of finding a good recipe card. Thankfully I was in luck!! Arabella will never say no to pasta and this didnt seem to heavy which was a relief as I was still slightly stuffed from my afternoon treat of millionaire shortbread.

It took just around 15 minutes to prepare and cook.

Ingredients for 2 people:

150g dried pasta - the recipe suggests linguine however I used some leftover macaroni
1 tsp olive oil
1 clove garlic, crushed
200g cherry tomatoes, halved
2 x 80g can John West Infusions Tuna Lemon & Thyme
6 basil leaves, roughly torn
2 tbsp grated Parmesan cheese (plus extra to serve if required)

Optional extra - 1 tablespoon of capers or 6 green olives, halved

Cook the pasta in salted boiling water according to the packet instructions - mine took 7 minutes.

While this is cooking, heat the oil in a small frying pan and cook the crushed garlic and halved tomatoes for 2-3 minutes until softened but still holding their shape.

Drain the pasta and return to the pan.

Add the tomatoes, garlic, tuna, basil and Parmesan to the pasta.

Season generously and toss together.

Serve with a little extra Parmesan if desired (we added quite a bit extra obviously)!

This was good - I liked the flavoured tuna however I felt the recipe was lacking a little something salty so I added a tablespoon of capers to mine and some green olives to Arabellas - this completed the recipe and took it to very good! It was very quick and easy to make and we used a lot of store cupboard ingredients which I always like. Actually the most complicated part of this recipe was opening the tuna lids!!

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