Pasta e Tonno

Italian pantry pasta at its most practical. Canned tuna in oil, garlic, onion, spaghetti. The entire dish comes from a cupboard and takes fifteen minutes. In Italy this is standard weeknight cooking — a complete protein meal from zero fresh ingredients.

Ingredients (4 servings)

• 320g dry pasta (spaghetti or spaghettini)
• 160g canned tuna in oil (2 × 80g cans, drained)
• 2 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
• 10g garlic (2 cloves), crushed
• 80g yellow onion (half a medium onion), finely diced

Instructions

1. Cook the pasta Bring a large pot of salted water to a boil. Cook pasta to package time.

2. Build the base While the pasta cooks, heat olive oil in a wide pan over medium heat. Add the diced onion. Cook 5–6 minutes until soft and translucent. Add the crushed garlic. Cook 1 more minute.

3. Add tuna Drain the tuna, reserving the oil from one can if it is good quality olive oil (discard if sunflower). Break the tuna into the pan in chunks — do not over-stir, some texture is important. Heat through for 2 minutes.

4. Combine Drain the pasta, reserving 100ml pasta water. Add the pasta to the pan. Toss over medium heat 1–2 minutes. Add a splash of pasta water to loosen if needed.

5. Serve Serve immediately. No cheese — tuna and Parmigiano do not combine well.

Notes

Tuna in olive oil is the correct product for this recipe. Tuna in brine or water produces a drier, less cohesive dish. The oil from the can, if it is olive oil, can replace part of the added oil.

The onion is the structural difference between pasta e tonno and aglio e olio with tuna added. The softer, sweeter base complements the fish.

Cost Context

At Italian supermarket prices (Q1 2025): pasta (€1.65/kg), tonno in scatola (~€20.00/kg drained weight, approximately €1.60 per 80g can), olive oil, garlic, onion. Total for four servings is approximately €4.20–4.40 — roughly €1.05 per serving. The tuna is the dominant cost at approximately 75% of total ingredient spend.