Tuna Spaghetti With Lemon and Parsley

This tuna spaghetti is one of the easiest pastas to make - the sauce comes together in the time that the pasta takes to cook - plus the tuna and the lemon work so well together!

Course Main Course

Cuisine Italian

Prep Time 5

Cook Time 20

Servings person

Calories 967kcal

Author Pina Bresciani

Ingredients

100 grams spaghetti
2 tablespoon olive oil
2 tablespoon chopped white or yellow onion
3-4 slices fresh chili pepper optional
1 can tuna in olive oil 80 g can
juice of ¼ of a lemon
zest of ½ of a lemon
2 tablespoon minced parsley
salt for pasta water

Instructions

Bring a pot of water to a boil, add salt, and drop the spaghetti in. Cook until al dente (about 2 minutes before it's done cooking, remove it from the pot and place it into the sauce - it will finish cooking in the sauce)
While the pasta is cooking, heat olive oil in a pan. Add the onion along with the chili pepper and sauté until onion is tender, about 5 minutes.
Add the tuna along with the olive oil from the can, and cook it down until it's warmed through, about 3 minutes.
Add the lemon juice and lemon zest. Add pasta to the pan and toss. Add pasta water if the sauce needs to be loosened up a bit. Add fresh parsley and toss until coated in the tuna sauce, about 2 minutes.
Plate, and top with additional parsley. Enjoy your tuna pasta!

Video

Notes

Canned tuna in olive oil is recommended for this recipe. I like Rio Mare tuna or Callipo tuna. Canned tuna in water could work, but the final dish won't be as flavorful.
The chili pepper is optional if you'd like to add some heat, and how much you add depends on how spicy your chili pepper is. You can also use dried chili flakes if you don't have fresh.
You don't need to add any cheese (parmigiano) to this pasta - generally Igalians don't add cheese to pasta dishes because they believe it takes flavor away from the fish.
I used spaghetti in this dish, but you can use any type of pasta - rigatoni, penne, farfalle, linguine, would all work really well
It's best to use a durum wheat semolina bronze die extruded pasta - you will get the best results this way and the sauce will cling very well

Nutrition