3-Cheese Tuna Bake w/ Semi Sun-Dried Tomatoes

May I present … the colours of Italy in a simple, filling, super-tasty, creamy bake! This lovely recipe is a riff off tuna mornay. Same deal — ingredients in béchamel (white) sauce (butter, flour, milk), with a quick, browning bake at the end. Semi-sun-dried tomatoes give it a juicy, tarty factor, and the tuna and baby spinach do the iron lifting. If you want vegetarian, leave out the tuna, add in corn. Quite delicious cold, too, so great for the lunchbox.

And now, a confession. Making the bake you see pictured, I ended up doing the béchamel sauce three times. You know, how you KNOW how to do a thing, have done it for years, and then your mind goes blank? Well.

Visually, I know the butter and flour are about the same quantity. Usually, that works fine. But first time I put in too much flour, and got a flour ball I could have played tennis with. Second time I got distracted during the first stir, and instead of smooth sauce, got lumpy, lumpy. Third time, I went back to a recipe (usually 60g butter to 2 tablespoons of flour, but I added in a little extra flour because of the amount of milk). And, like Goldilocks, finally got it just right. Moral of the story — keep all the beginner cookbooks you own. And then be like Chekhov’s character (see quote), and don’t mention the sauce!

“I call it good breeding,” said Bielokurov, with a sigh, “not so much not to upset the sauce on the table, as not to notice it when some one else has done it.”

-Anton Chekhov, from short story, “The House with the Mezzanine”

Three-Cheese Tuna Bake with Semi-Sun-Dried Tomatoes

Smooth operator.

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Prep Time:10 minutes mins

Cook Time:40 minutes mins

Course: Main Course

Keyword: easy dinner, three cheese, tuna, tuna bake

Servings: 4 generous or 6 with salads etc

Ingredients

• 300 g pasta, penne or other tube shape. Use gluten free pasta if required/preference
• 425 g tuna, drained (throw in an extra small tin if you like a more robust tuna to pasta ratio). Omit tuna and replace with medium tin of drained corn or other vegetables for vegetarian.
• 1 onion, diced
• 1-2 garlic cloves, minced
• ⅓ cup cheddar, shredded
• ⅓ cup mozzarella, shredded, plus extra for topping
• 2 tbsp parmesan, grated, plus extra for topping
• 60 g baby spinach leaves
• 200 g semi sun-dried tomato, chopped (you can use sun-dried, I just prefer the texture of semi sun-dried)
• olive oil
• salt, pepper, a handful of chopped herbs to taste

Sauce

• 60 g butter
• 2½ tbsp flour
• 3 cups milk

Instructions

• Preheat oven to 200℃ / 390℉.
• Cook pasta according to packet directions. Drain and cool slightly.
• Fry onion, add in garlic until fragrant. Throw onion and garlic into a 22cm/8" baking dish. Chuck in the semi-sundried tomatoes and some herbs. Flake in tuna.
• Make sauce. It should take around 15 minutes, depending on your stove top. But time is less important than looking for visual cues and feeling the sauce thicken on the spoon. Make sure you have the flour and milk to hand.

  Melt butter in saucepan over low to moderate heat. When butter is melted, add flour, stirring constantly so the roux comes together with no lumps, it bubbles, and you can't smell flour. It will look like a thick sauce itself.

  Stirring constantly with a wooden spoon to ensure nothing sticks to the bottom of the saucepan, add half milk. Stir to incorporate. You'll know now if the sauce will be okay. If it does get lumpy, easiest to start again. Add in the other half milk.

  When stirring, ensure the spoon's always in contact with the bottom of the saucepan, because the sauce likes to congeal there. The spoon should glide across the bottom like a figure skater.

  Take your time, keep on stirring over a low to moderate heat until sauce thickens. Don't worry at this stage if you think it's too liquidy. The cheese will take care of that. You will feel and see the sauce thicken on the spoon, and then it will come to a boil, about 10 minutes. It seems to take forever, but it does happen.

  Take sauce off heat and stir in cheese until melted through, salt, pepper, herbs.
• Add pasta and half spinach to baking dish. Add warm sauce and mix through so spinach wilts. Add in remainder spinach and continue to mix, ensuring vegetables are well distributed and submerged. Pat down with an eye to your hostess aesthetic (pasta as top layer better for your Instagram).
• Sprinkle top with mozzarella and parmesan and extra seasoning if you wish. Bake for 15-20 minutes until top is melted and golden.