Mamuq: Pasta that’s easy, not cheesy

A few years ago, my boyfriend and I visited Australia for five weeks. He was attending a conference and I was wrapping up my first year of teaching in Montreal.

Following his conference, we discovered there was an optional trip to Heron Island to visit a marine station. We took a three-hour boat ride to the tiny island in the middle of the Great Barrier Reef. It took 25 minutes to walk around the island — slowly.

We stayed in a university dormitory and had a few roommates for the days we were there. Carlos, a friendly, dry-humoured man from Italy was one of them and he offered to cook us some pasta one night.

It was one of the best, yet most simple pasta dishes I’ve eaten and it’s great if you have limited ingredients and a tight budget. It’s one of those suppers that hits the spot when we’ve run out of ideas. I often have to remind myself not to add more ingredients as it’s the simplicity that makes it so good.

Carlos’s Pasta

Ingredients

2 tbsp olive oil
5 cloves garlic, cut into big pieces
1 can tuna

1 big can tomatoes
2 tbsp salt (to boil the pasta)
Pepper and oregano to taste
Pasta

Directions:

Bring a large pot of salted water to boil (don’t add oil). Add the pasta and cook until slightly firm. How long this takes will depend on the kind of pasta you use. Carlos used spaghettini and that’s the kind I prefer.

While the pasta cooks, heat the olive oil in a frying pan and add the big chunks of garlic. Let this fry on medium-low heat until the garlic is well-roasted but not burned to a crisp.

Remove the chunks of garlic (Carlos did, but sometimes we keep them in) and add the can of tuna. It’s best to remove the pan from the burner and carefully add the tuna because if it’s packed in water, it will react with the hot oil and splash everywhere. (I use tuna packed in water because it’s a way of cutting out extra fat without cutting out flavour).

Break up the tuna and add the can of tomatoes. Return the pan to the burner to bring the ingredients to a gentle simmer. Break up the tomatoes and add some fresh black pepper and oregano.

Once the pasta is cooked, drain it and drizzle some olive oil over it, tossing it to coat. Pour the sauce over the pasta and mix.

Serve immediately. This is also a great recipe with char instead of tuna.