Tuna Pesto Pasta

How many of you like pasta?? This is one ingredient which can be created into so many different dishes with different flavours. You can make it as kids friendly as possible to flavours liked by adults. Before Parina shared this recipe with me, I used to regularly make the white sauce and red sauce pasta as both my kids loved these and would eat it without any complaints. Initially, when I saw this recipe, I wasn’t too convinced on how it will turn out. I had too many questions for her. Finally, when I was sort of convinced, I decided to try it – well, I never show you recipes which haven’t been tried out by me and liked by not just me but my family too, who happen to be the guinea pigs. Sometimes there are multiple trials done before a recipe is finalised and presented..:). So coming back to this Tuna Pesto Pasta, I was clearly bowled over by how this tasted and the fact that it just was so easy to make too. I almost finished half the bowl all by myself (Oh yeah! I admit.. I love good food..;)) I am so glad to have learnt this recipe. I now have a stock of tuna cans with me to make this whenever I want to..

For this recipe, I have used my home-made Pesto Sauce. So we exactly know what has gone into it and of course, no preservatives!

Parina is certified in Personal Training from National Academy of Sports Medicine. With the the motto ‘Give More. Get More’, she designed NEIKI, her fitness program, wherein she strives to reduce injury risk and prepare our bodies to bear the impact they need to. On this excursion, her endeavour is to help people stand upright – physically and mentally.

It is not just recipes that Parina is sharing with us – it is a lot of other information too. Head over to my YouTube channel to see all that we discuss around food and nutrition! Cheers to a balanced and healthy start to 2021..:)

Tuna Pesto Pasta

Course: Main CourseDifficulty: Easy

Servings

3

servings

Prep time

10

minutes

Cooking time

15

minutes

Calories

1057

kcal

Total time

25

minutes

A great meal which is perfectly balanced and will certainly appeal to your taste buds too.

Ingredients

• Olive Oil – 12 gms

• Cherry Tomato – 20-25 (Or 3-4 regular tomatoes)

• Garlic – 6-8 cloves, chopped

• Onion – 2, chopped

• Salt – as per taste

• Pepper – as per taste

• Tuna Flakes in Brine – 130 gms

• Fusilli Pasta – 160 gms

• Black Olives – 15-20

• Green Olives – 10-15

• Basil Pesto Sauce – ½ cup

Directions

• In a pan, add 2 gms of olive oil and add the tomatoes. You can slice the cherry tomatoes into half for this recipe.
• Cook this for 5-10 min on low flame till soft. Remove the tomatoes from the heat and keep it aside.
• Into the same pan, add the remaining 10 gms of oil and add the garlic to it. Fry the garlic lightly till fragrant.
• Add the chopped onions to it and fry till light brown. Add salt and pepper to this and keep it aside.
• Cook the pasta in some water and keep it aside. Reserve the water used to boil the pasta to add later, if needed.
• In a bowl, mix together the cooked onion, garlic, drained tuna flakes and olives.
• Add the pasta and the basil pesto sauce and mix thoroughly. Refer my notes below for the basil pesto sauce.
• Add some of the reserved pasta water in case it appears too dry.
• Finally, add the tomatoes and serve.

Recipe Video

Notes

• Tomatoes: If you are using cherry tomatoes, slice them into half for the recipe. In case you don’t get cherry tomatoes, then you can use regular tomatoes, but chop them into larger cubes so that the tomatoes don’t become too mushy when cooked and still retain their shape. Stir in the cooked tomatoes into the pasta only towards the end so that they retain their shape and flavour and don’t turn mushy.
• Pasta Water: Reserve some of the pasta water after you have cooked the pasta. You can add this in case you feel the dish is too dry. Another option is to add a little bit of olive oil.
• Basil Pesto Sauce: My recipe of Basil Pesto Sauce has 3 tbsp of oil added to it. But when I made it for this recipe, I used only 1 tsp of oil and added water to adjust the consistency of the sauce. That ways, the quantity of fats for the recipe was balanced.