Taste-bud Journey: Pasta Dish with Tuna, Veggies, and Special Sauce

During the pandemic, I am taking taste-bud journeys as I self-isolate rather than physical journeys. Here is my adapted recipe for a Pasta Dish with tuna, veggies, and a special sauce that is similar to Thousand Island Dressing. It was inspired by the desire to repurpose the leftovers of a tuna dish I had made a couple of days back. My other incentives were to prevent food-waste and to give my palette some varied tastes and textures.

Conclusion: The special sauce was the most distinctive flavor to this meal; however, I could definitely fully taste the pasta and the tuna. I was not able to detect the flavor of the bell peppers and broccoli that were part of the make-up of the tuna patties; however, my mind knew that this little bit of nourishment was there. Although this was not the most delicious meal I have ever eaten, it met all my criteria. All in all, I enjoyed the meal. I even have enough to get one more meal out of this effort. Plus, since I was using leftovers, both food prep and clean-up were a relative breeze.

FYI - By the way, my motive in blogging about my taste-bud journeys is more about having a pictorial repository of my cooking efforts that I can refer back to later than trying to represent myself as some kind of cooking expert. Instead, I like to think of myself more like a student scientifically experimenting with various food combinations to see what does and does not work. 

Some of my cooking efforts have ended up in the trash can. LOL! I have not blogged about those. But if there was any level of partial or full enjoyment of the results, then I have felt motivated to create a pictorial blog about the process.

My other goal is trying to replicate one of the things I loved most about cruising which was that I got to try a huge variety of different kinds of food dishes. Since I am a widow and sheltering in place by myself, I am indulging in this cooking and blogging hobby to spice up my life, so to speak. If it sparks your imagination or brings you any kind of pleasure, for me, that would truly be a WIN-WIN.

 

Recipe

• Three of four (or more) leftover or fresh tuna patties, of any type. [FYI - In my case, I had seven tuna patties remaining from the recipe I had made two days prior that had made 16 patties to begin with. In case you're interested, the recipe for my particular tuna patties is linked directly below this ingredients list.]
• 1 cup (or more) of pasta. [I used Garden Rotini.]
• Special Sauce ingredient #1: 1 to 2 tablespoons of sweet pickle relish
• Special Sauce ingredient #2: 2 to 3 tablespoons of ketchup
• Special Sauce ingredient #3: 4 to 5 tablespoons of mayonnaise
• Sufficient amount of water to cook the pasta in (that will be drained off after it is done cooking)
• Olive Oil or other cooking oil to great the electric grill or pot on the stove
• 1/2 teaspoon of sea salt to salt the pasta water

Here is the blog describing how to make the tuna dish that was the primary feature of this particular meal. This link will open in a new window

• Taste-Bud Journey: Tuna Patties with a Red Cooking Wine Twist

In case you're interested, this is the link for the FASTA PASTA I purchased on Amazon. There is even a demonstration video you can watch if you click on that link. This link will open in a new window. 

Microwave Pasta Cooker - The Original Fasta Pasta (Red) - No Mess, Sticking or Waiting for Boil - Container, Lid & Strainer All In One

Procedure

• Step 1: Using an electric grill or large pot on a stove, add a liberal amount of olive oil (or other cooking oil of your choice) to grease the grill or pot.

• Step 2: Add the tuna patties into the pot and use a utensil that can help mash the patty. I used a silicone ground meat masher.

• Step 3: In the meantime, either boil pasta on the stove in salted water or use a FASTA PASTA and cook the pasta in the microwave. I only microwaved mine for eight minutes as I know it would receive some additional cooking time in my electric grill. In other words, I didn't want the pasta to get over-cooked.

• Step 4: Stir in the three ingredients for the special sauce into the tuna mixture. Stir occasionally as it heats up and cooks.

• Step 5: When the pasta is done, drain it. Then, add the pasta to the tuna mixture. Stir. Cook for an additional minute or two.

• Step 6: Then, plate and serve.

Cooking Sites that have inspired me:

• Gemma's Bigger Bolding Baking website that includes over 100 great cooking videos.

• All Recipes Website that includes all kinds of sweet and savory recipes.

Books written by Debbie Dunn:

Here is the Amazon Link to all anti-bullying curriculum books plus all children’s books written by Debbie Dunn (both paperback and Kindle). It will open up in a new window.

• Author’s Page on Amazon.com