Angel Hair Pasta with Tuna, Canned Tuna Recipe, Post GERD Surgery Recipe

In my continuing effort to make the hubby yummy dinners on his restricted diet from his surgery for a hiatal hernia I turned to pasta and canned tuna. These are two of the items he is allowed to eat. He has been enjoying my efforts like the Tofu Picatta I made him last week and of course the treats I’ve been making like the Meringues and Vegan Shortbread. I do not create a canned tuna recipe very often – OK this is the first. I was surprised at how good it was. A big part of it is using a high quality canned tuna; we bought albacore in water from our local natural food store and it’s truly delicious tuna. This can very easily be a pantry meal with dry pasta but I made ours as I am wont to do.

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Angel Hair Pasta with Tuna – Canned Tuna Recipe

Serves 2

• 2 cups cooked angel hair pasta (reserve about a cup of the cooking water)
• 1 can high quality albacore tuna in water
• zest from one lemon
• 1 TBS lemon juice
• 2 tsp parsley
• one egg
• 1/2 cup grated Parmesan cheese plus a little more for garnish
• 1 tsp salt and more to taste if needed

(If you have the time homemade pasta is so much better than store bought. My husband gave me the pasta roller attachment for my KitchenAid over 25 years ago and in truth I really didn’t use it with any regularity until we moved to Montana. I would pull it out ocassionally but never to the level I use it here. Once I got the hang of it I can make fresh pasta so easily now. I recommend if you have one JUST USE IT. Soon you will be able to decide to have fresh pasta same day and enjoy it for dinner.)

• Cook the pasta, reserve about a cup of the pasta water, drain the pasta and set it aside.

• Heat a large saute pan over medium heat. Add the tuna, 1 tsp parsley, the lemon juice and zest and heat through.

• Add two cups of angel hair pasta to the pan along with half a cup of the pasta water and the cheese. Stir to mix everything together and coat the pasta.
• Beat the egg and add a little of the pasta water to temper it. Slowly pour it into the pan and let the sauce thicken. Add the remaining pasta water, taste and adjust seasoning.

• Serve half to each and sprinkle the remaining parsley and grate a little Parmesan over top

How Was the Canned Tuna Recipe?

As I mentioned above I am not generally a big fan of tuna in a hot meal. This canned tuna recipe was really delicious. I surprised myself and I will also note it’s the first time I used canned tuna as a protein in a meal. Can you believe that? I don’t even like tuna melt sandwiches. I would and will make this again. Especially since the hubby has to stick to this diet for 5 more weeks! When we did the big shopping trip before his surgery – a truly fortuitious bit of buying given the subsequent events in the country! – we bought 16 cans of tuna so I have more than enough to use for future meals.

This pantry dinner was so easy to put together and it turned out so delicious I will surely keep it in my dinner rotation even when he is allowed to eat regular meals.

Angel Hair Pasta with Tuna

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This simple meal, easily made with pantry ingredients is perfect for the soft foods regimen after GERD surgery

• Author: Patty
• Prep Time: 25 minutes
• Cook Time: 15 minutes
• Total Time: 40 minutes
• Yield: 2 1x
• Category: Main Dish
• Method: Stove top
• Cuisine: Italian American

Ingredients

Scale 1x2x3x

• 2 cups cooked angel hair pasta (reserve about a cup of the cooking water)
• 1 can high quality albacore tuna in water
• zest from one lemon
• 1 TBS lemon juice
• 2 tsp parsley
• one egg
• 1/2 cup grated Parmesan cheese plus a little more for garnish
• 1 tsp salt and more to taste if needed

 

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Instructions

• Cook the pasta, reserve about a cup of the pasta water, drain the pasta and set it aside.
• Heat a large saute pan over medium heat. Add the tuna, 1 tsp parsley, the lemon juice and zest and heat through.
• Add two cups of angel hair pasta to the pan along with half a cup of the pasta water and the cheese. Stir to mix everything together and coat the pasta.
• Beat the egg and add a little of the pasta water to temper it. Slowly pour it into the pan and let the sauce thicken. Add the remaining pasta water, taste and adjust seasoning.
• Serve half to each and sprinkle the remaining parsley and grate a little Parmesan over top

Notes

If you feel the sauce is still too thick you can add water a tablespoon at a time

Prep time includes the cooking time for the pasta

If you don’t have a lemon on hand just don’t use the zest and substitute real lemon or even rice vinegar for the lemon juice. It will have a slightly different flavor but it will still be good.

Keywords: canned tuna, pasta, pantry dinner, post GERD surgery