Blistered Cherry Tomato, Tuna and Basil Pasta Salad

Ready for another pasta dish? Well it seems like there is a never ending supply of them anyway during the winter months. This pasta dish won’t have you feeling the fullness blues or spending hours cooking up a slow cooked sauce that ends up being too oily. This pasta dish will make you feel like your blissfully enjoying the springtime pleasures and the ease and beauty of such flavour pairings. This is my delicious blistered cherry tomato, tuna and basil pasta salad.

Salad? Technically it’s part salad, part main meal. It’s best served warm but the pasta isn’t drowned in a thick, heavy sauce. Spritzed in extra virgin olive oil as the binding agent between a few cupboard staples, this is undeniably a dish built on fresh ingredients, harmonious and natural flavours, balanced textures whilst keeping to a penny saving budget.

Please make it vegan

Easy. Just omit the tuna and you can either add in an extra veg like grilled zucchini, mix it up with an different form of protein, like crispy tofu, or even spruce the textures up with sesame seeds, fried onions or a little toasted pine nuts.

This dish is certainly Mediterranean inspired so think warm weather, fresh harvested herbs and vegetables, salty sea fish and simplistic cooking styles. Think little time cooking for more time playing. Think cooking for one being the same as cooking for the many. Think maximum enjoyment for minimal effort. And think natural flavours due to the freshest ingredients.

If you don’t love tuna but you aren’t vegan, try flaked smoked trout or ribbons of grilled salmon. You can even use the pasta salad as a base for tender shrimp that have been marinaded in a delicious honey sauce for a really bold flavour juxtaposition.

Be creative, this is half the fun of cooking. I love to provide you with recipes that use ingredients that are globally available but also some recipes that act as a basis for your choice of extras. It’s completely based on your requirements, time availability and personal preference to how you adapt and add those finishing touches. At the end of the day, if you are not inspired to create your own or don’t have the brain power for any extras, keep it as is because you will not go wrong.

Cooking Pasta

Cooking pasta comes in a variety of different forms. Ranging from two minutes for fresh to 45 minutes for one pot, slow cooker pasta. So which one should you turn to?

For this recipe, fresh would be great time wise, but it means using this dish for weekly meal prep would be out of the question. This is purely based on the longevity of fresh pasta after cooking - ie. it should be eaten right away without hesitation based on it drying and sticking and thus not being as enjoyabe. If you are using it for lunch or dinner right away, feel free to cook with fresh pasta as it not only is quicker timewise but also tastes better too.

Dried pasta would be the way to go if you wish to use this recipe for meal prep or for the kids. Packaging into air tight containers means you will have as good a dish as if you were using fresh pasta, even when eatening it days later. This recipe is also just as good cold as it is warm because of the olive oil drizzle as a dressing rather than a sauce. It will keep it hydrated, avoid sticking whilst also acting as a light and flavourful sauce.

Anyway, that’s all from me.

Enjoy

xx

Blistered Cherry Tomato, Tuna and Basil Pasta Salad

Inspired by Delicious Australia

Ingredients

400 grams bio penne or spiral pasta

3 garlic cloves, crushed

1/2 cup extra virgin olive oil

200 grams cherry tomatoes

3 spring onions, sliced

200 gram tuna tin, with oil

1/2 cup fresh basil leaves

1 lemon, juiced

Pinch of sea salt and crack black pepper

For serving; breadcrumbs (optional), extra lemon wedges, sea salt, black pepper, basil leaves

Method

Cook the pasta according to instructions on the back of the box. Make sure to cook to al dente (with a bite) as over cooked pasta for pasta salads does not work (the starch makes everything too gluggy and sticky). Drain once cooked and place in a large mixing bowl. Set aside.

In a medium pan on medium/high heat, blister the tomatoes. Do not use oil even though it starts to smoke a little at the end. Cook the tomatoes for 4-5 minutes until blackened and shake the pan, making sure they turn over. Repeat until the tomatoes begin to pop and the surface has a nice charred look. Place in the pasta bowl.

Add the garlic, tuna with oil (making sure to break up a little but also keeping larger chunks), lemon juice, spring onions, half the basil and drizzle over the extra virgin olive oil. Season with salt and pepper. Mix well until incorporated. If you have 5-10 minutes for the flavours to marinade, pop it into the fridge. Leave up to 20 minutes - this allows the lemon, garlic and olive oil to be some what absorbed by and infuse the pasta.

Once ready, serve in bowls with other half of the basil and extra lemon wedges. Season with salt and pepper for colour and toasted breadcrumbs if desired.