Description
Creamy, cheesy, full of pasta and oh-so comforting. What’s not to love about Creamy tuna pasta bake?
Ingredients
Scale
Filling
- 1 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
- 1 brown onion, diced
- 1 carrot, diced
- 2 garlic cloves, crushed
- 400 rigatoni pasta
- 70g butter
- 5 tbsp all plain, all-purpose flour
- 750mls full cream milk
- 425g can of tuna in spring water
- 100g vintage cheddar
- 40g parmesan reggiano cheese
- 420g can of corn kernels
- 1c frozen peas
- sea salt and freshly ground pepper to season
Topping
- 1 c bread crumbs
- 30g Reggiano parmesan cheese
- 70g vintage cheddar
Instructions
- In a large saucepan add one tablespoon of oil the diced onion and carrots. Sauté on low heat for five minutes. Add the crushed garlic cloves and stir for one minute until fragrant. Transfer to a prep dish and set aside.
- Preheat the oven to 180 degrees Celsius.
- Cook the pasta to package instructions, drain and set aside.
- To make the bechamel sauce (creamy white sauce). In a large saucepan melt the butter on low heat. Add the flour to the melted butter and stir to combine into a paste. Cook, stirring continuously, on low heat for 5 minutes. This is needed to cook out the flour.
- Add 1 cup of milk continually stirring to allow the milk to incorporate into the flour mixture (or roux). At this stage, change from using your wooden spoon to stir to a whisk. It will make it much easier to get a smooth, creamy sauce. Gradually add the remaining milk a little at a time, stirring continuously until the mixture resembles a thick, creamy sauce. A bechamel sauce can take a lot of liquid, so don’t be afraid if it looks really runny. Cooking the sauce will cause the sauce will thicken. If it thickens too much, just add more liquid.
- Strain the tuna keeping the liquid. Using the tuna liquid continue to cook the sauce adding in the same way as the milk. The sauce should coat the back of a spoon but not be too thick. It will continue cooking/thickening while in the oven, so I like to start with a thin sauce.
- Strain the corn kernels, keeping 2 tbsp of the liquid for the mornay sauce.
- Add the cheese and stir through to let it melt in.
- Add the onion garlic and carrot mixture as well as the drained tuna, frozen peas, corn, reserved corn juice and cooked drained pasta. Stir and combine thoroughly. Transfer the mixture to a large oven-proof baking dish.
- For the topping in a small bowl combine breadcrumbs and remaining parmesan and grated cheddar cheese. Give a quick mix to combine.
- Top the pasta mixture with the topping crumb and bake in the oven for 25 minutes.
Notes
Always cook the pasta until it’s al-dente. Usually this is a couple of minutes less than packet instructions. The pasta will continue cooking once it’s added to the sauce, so al-dente pasta ensures the pasta in not overcooked and mushy!
Nutrition
- Serving Size:
- Calories: 856
- Sugar: 14.1 g
- Sodium: 1336.3 mg
- Fat: 36 g
- Carbohydrates: 88.1 g
- Protein: 44.8 g
- Cholesterol: 93.8 mg