Sunday, January 2, 2011

Pasta with tuna and roquefort



Since it's all I could assemble from my fridge and cupboard tonight, and I haven't found it on Google, I will assume I invented this recipe (yeah, right) and I will share it with you.

Ingredients for one person:

3 handsfull of pasta -- I use penne for these kind of things, I find them more appropriate
1 can of tuna pieces "nature" (100 grams) (in water that is, not in oil)
40-50g of roquefort
5 green olives from the can, "nature" -- not spiced or anything
1 table spoon of olive oil
20-30 minutes of your precious time

Boil the pasta by your own method, but make sure the method doesn't include cooling them in cold water at the end. I personally boil them in a lot of water (so that they don't get stuck) and with the table spoon of olive oil (with a little bit of salt as well usually, but in this recipe the roquefort is already salty enough).
In the mean time, prepare the plates to serve on. For this recipe (and its sister recipes, see below) I use relatively deep bowls rather than shallow plates, it helps better achieving the purpose of the recipe. Put a layer of tuna and cheese cut in little cube pieces (or whatever shape your roquefort takes -- if you manage to cut it in cubes please post a comment and explain me how :) ). Have the rest of the tuna and squared cheese next to you. When the pasta are done, drain the water and put some of the hot pasta over the fish and cheese layer in your plate. Then put some more tuna & cheese, then another "layer" of pasta and so on, as many times as you feel necessary (the idea is that the heat of the pasta will heat a bit the tuna and melt the cheese) -- I for one had only 2 layers of pasta and cheese. On the top, throw in the olives and a little spread of cheese.

Here's a picture of my dinner:



The recipe feels rather light, although the sensitive souls might not like the combination of roquefort cheese and tuna (the roquefort is a little "strong" for tuna). For those (and not only), I should mention that I did the same in the past with goat cheese (the light, "tartinable" one -- like the one in the wikipedia picture), and my cook nose would say it should work fine with feta cheese or danish white cheese as well, which are lighter and combine better with tuna. For these lighter versions, I would even go that far and spread a bit of basil on top -- fresh or dried -- it will do miracles for the appearance.

Bon appetit!

P.S. Wow that was long, it took me a full year to post again!