Spice Up Your Tuna Pasta Bake

Following a minor operation I was incapacitated for a couple of weeks barley able to make a cup of tea let alone get in the kitchen to do some cooking. I was left in the hands of my fiancé who very rarely cooks. Up till then i have only sampled her signature and only dish of pasta in Arrabbiata sauce (ready made) a hand full of times. So when she came home from work one night clutching a hand full of recipes printed from the Internet I felt a little relived. Although one recipe I did turn my nose up at, tuna pasta bake. Since being a child a gave tuna a wide birth not liking the smell put me off, but as she was doing a fantastic job of looking after me I didn't want to be too picky.


Since then we have had this dish a few times and I've altered the recipe to our taste as the original recipe had far to much chilli in and swapped sweetcorn instead of peas which gives the dish a bit more texture and sweetness. Here is my version of the tuna pasta bake to spice things up a little.


INGREDIENTS
200g cup pasta (macaroni, small shell or spirals)
1 tin tuna
½ cup chedder cheese grated + 2 tbsp extra
1 tin sweetcorn
2 tbsp butter
1 tbsp plain flour
1 tsp curry powder
1 tsp lonumirus (Maldivian chilli sauce, made out of 1 tsp chilli powder, 1 tsp ground cumin, 1 tsp garlic paste, juice of 1 lime and ½ tsp ground black pepper and salt)
250 ml milk
1 slice of bread
2 tbsp olive oil or vegetable oil
Salt

METHOD
1) Place the bread in a food processor and pulse to make fresh crumbs and set a side.

2) Cook pasta until almost done, but has bite to it . Drain and put in a large bowl with the drained sweetcorn. Add tuna flake it little, add salt (a pinch would do) and lime juice, mix well.

3) Make cheese sauce : Melt butter, switch off heat. Add flour and whisk it till you have a nice paste. Add curry powder and mix it in to the flour. Place it back on the stove over a medium heat. Add milk slowly, whisking all the time to prevent lumps from forming. Let it boil and then simmer till the sauce thickens a little, about 5 minutes. Add lonumirus and cheese. taste and add salt if necessary and pepper.

4) Pour the sauce into the pasta mixture and mix well, pour in to a suitable oiled oven dish.

5) Make topping by mixing olive oil , the fresh breadcrumbs , parsley and chedder cheese together, sprinkle on top of the pasta and bake in a 190- 200 °C oven for about 30 minutes till nice and golden.

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