Tuna and Pasta - But great tasting!

[xenithon]

I was trying to figure out a nice recipe to mix a bodybuilders 2 best friends - tuna and pasta.

What you need is:

1 tin tuna in water (about 200g)
60-100g spaghetti (depending on how many carbs you want - vary it with no problems )
1 tin canned cubed tomato (no additives!)
1/2 well chopped onion.

Firstly - make your pasta like normal - throw in some boiling salted water for around 10 minutes. Note - when al dente throw in some cool water to stop cooking process.

In a small saucepan add your tomatoes. Normally you'll find quite a bit of water/liquid in it so gently simmer it so that it reduces. When its quite thick, add some fresh origanum and LOTS OF BLACK PEPPER - this gives a nice kick and compliments the dish beautifully. Once thats done, throw the tomatoes in a food processor and whizz up until smooth (I have tried it chunky - not that great - better as a smooth paste or sauce). Alternatively of course you can buy ready pureed tomatoes in a tin in which case you just need to boil it up to reduce it and add some pepper and origanum.

In a shallow pan, add one teaspoon olive oil and the chopped up onions until they go trnaslucent - what us chefs like to term sweating the onions. Then turn up the heat to about 70% and add the drained tuna. Mix it up until well combined and well warmed through. Then add the tomato puree to the pan and mix it through until you have an even distribution of sauce and tuna.

To serve, pile the spaghetti into a large soup bowl and add the tuna/tomato mixture. Mix everything through and vualah!

Caloric breakdown (via simple addition of ingredients )
(Using a 170g tin of tuna, 100g tomato, 70g pasta)

carbs = 60g
protein = 50g
fat = 5g (purely from the olive oil alone - I dont count the o.1 or 0.2g fat in the tuna hehe)
calories = 485

I usually have this a few hours after a workout - perfect when I get home at like 5pm.

Enjoy!

[dumbells101]

I hope you made enough for the whole class young man!

[Tobey]

I have posted several reciepes with tuna and pasta but never though about adding tomatoes. I'm gonna have to try this one later on in the week. I'll let you know how it turns out. A quick note, have you ever considered just adding tomatoe paste? I'm not sure, it probaly has more sugar in it now that I think about it but it might be a little easier than putting your cubed tomatoes in a food processor. Thanks for the reciepe, I'm looking forward to trying it cubed tomatoes and all.
IC

[xenithon]

hi there!

I do use tomato paste when doing things like pizza bases. But, firstly they contain a lot of crap we really don't want such as sugar, citric acid, emulsifiers, thickeners etc. As I mentioned, if you have available already pureed fresh tomatoes then thats perfect - tried it yesterday in fact But I just had to make sure that it was fresh, unadulterated tomatoes without any of those additives. I dunno about there, but here the purees you get are really thick, stoggy mixtures, quite strong and bitter in taste - used more as flavourant than a base for a dish.

Cheers and hope it turns out well!

PS - LOTSA BLACK PEPPER

[Tekto]

Hey bro, can u tell me the brand of that can of tomatoes you use for that recipe? I can't wait to do it!

Originally posted by xenithon
hi there!

I do use tomato paste when doing things like pizza bases. But, firstly they contain a lot of crap we really don't want such as sugar, citric acid, emulsifiers, thickeners etc. As I mentioned, if you have available already pureed fresh tomatoes then thats perfect - tried it yesterday in fact But I just had to make sure that it was fresh, unadulterated tomatoes without any of those additives. I dunno about there, but here the purees you get are really thick, stoggy mixtures, quite strong and bitter in taste - used more as flavourant than a base for a dish.

Cheers and hope it turns out well!

PS - LOTSA BLACK PEPPER

[xenithon]

hehe - all gold brand. like i said i dunno what u can get overseas. i know in like america or uk things are very branded so if i say the name u'll automatically recognise it here its quite different, we change a lot haha! anyways just look for pureed tomatoes. dont get the pureed tomato concentrate!! yuk. look for pure tomatoes only. if it has a bit of sugar or water, its ok, just dont get the ones with sugar and citric acid and oxalic acid and sodium benzoate and ......... u get the picture and like i said if u cant get puree just get the cubed or diced tomatoes and whizz em up hop[e this helps. any more q's just ask!

[Tekto]

hehe. Thanks bro. Hey and adding lots of pepper doesnt make it too hot? How much are u talking about?