Spaghetti with Tuna and Lemons
This simple, summery dish is just the kind of recipe you want on speed dial on hot summer evenings when only a bowl of something low effort, high reward will do. Bringing together garlic, lemon and tuna in perfect harmony, this is a bright, tasty meal you'll return to again and again.
Introduction
This is a combination of lots of different recipes all thrown into one, a sort of improved AOP (spaghetti aglio olio e peperoncino – the simplest classic Italian pasta dish of fried garlic olive oil and chilli) and a happy mess of things that are often found at the back of the refrigerator or cupboard. It’s a lovely light winter lunch, to blast away the cobwebs and keep things sharp and fresh with the tang of capers, a lift of lemon zest and the peppery punch of rocket (arugula). If available, I like to use spaghettoni – a slightly plumper spaghetti, with fatter, more robust strands – but any long pasta shape would be good. The ‘sauce’ – though this is less of a sauce and more of a saucy ‘coating’ – is the work of seconds, and is wonderfully savoury and satisfying. Another reason to love tinned (or more often, jarred) tuna. As he eats his plateful, my husband Lorenzo carefully picks out every individual caper and leaves them in a neat pile on the side of his plate, but he says he wouldn’t like it as much if they weren’t there. That’s the funny thing about capers: even if you don’t like them, you can still appreciate them for all their salty oddness. (He says he appreciates them in all their caper-bility but would rather not eat a whole one. He is obviously thrilled with this pun.)
Ingredients
| 200g (7oz) | spaghetti |
| 4 tbsp | olive oil, plus extra to serve |
| 2 | garlic cloves, thinly sliced |
| A small glass | white wine |
| 1 x 150g (5½oz) tin of | tuna in oil, drained |
| Zest of 1 small | lemon |
| A pinch of | dried chilli (hot pepper) flakes |
| A large handful of | rocket (arugula), large leaves roughly chopped, small leaves left whole |
| A little | chopped parsley (optional) |
| 1 scant tbsp | capers |
| sea salt |
Method
Cook the pasta according to the packet instructions in a large saucepan of well-salted boiling water until al dente.
Meanwhile, heat the oil in a large saucepan, add the garlic to sauté it until just turning golden. Pour in the glass of wine and allow to boil for a minute or two, then add the tuna and stir for a minute. Add the lemon zest, chilli flakes, rocket and parsley, if using. Finally, add the capers and taste for seasoning. Add a pinch of salt and a spritz of lemon if necessary, or a bit more chilli for heat. Set aside.
Drain the pasta, reserving a few tablespoons of the cooking water. Add both pasta and cooking water to the tuna pan over a medium heat and place over the heat again for a couple of minutes. Toss and stir to make sure the pasta is well coated. Check the seasoning again and serve with an extra drizzle of olive oil.
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