Spaghetti Al Tonno

with Chef John Mitzewich

Transcript: Spaghetti Al Tonno

Hi, I'm Chef John Mitzewich for About.com Food. Today I'm going to show you how to make spaghetti al tono, which is simply spaghetti with tuna sauce. It's incredibly easy, very nutritious, and bursting with flavor.

Spaghetti al Tonno Ingredients

So, here are ingredients:

• 7 ounces tuna
• 3 cups tomato sauce
• 1/2 cup white wine, something decent
• 2 tablespoons olive oil
• 3 cloves minced garlic
• some red pepper flakes
• 1 teaspoon anchovy paste – that's the secret ingredient
• 1 teaspoon sugar to balance the acidity
• 2 tablespoons capers
• 1/2 cup chopped parsley
• 1 pound of your favorite spaghetti

Saute the Capers

Now, this is a very simple sauce to put together. The first step is kind of interesting. We are going to sauté the capers in the olive oil for 5 minutes to bring out the briney-ness and saltiness of the capers and really flavor the oil.

Combine the Wine, Anchovy, and Garlic

Then, we're going to add our anchovy and our garlic, and we're going to give it a quick one-minute sauté, just to take the raw edge off.

At this point, we add our white wine. Be careful - we don't want any color on the garlic. After the wine add the sugar and pepper flakes, and simmer for 5 minutes to cook out the alcohol and reduce slightly.

Simmer the Spaghetti Sauce

After that, we can add the tuna and break it up into small pieces. We want it to almost disappear into the sauce. There goes our tomato sauce.

Now, this is going to be kind of a thick sauce, but since we are going to simmer this for about 10 minutes, it would get too thick unless we add some pasta water.

So with the water you already have boiling for your pasta, go ahead and add a ladle of that.

Add Parsley to the Spaghetti Sauce

Go ahead and add half of the parsley. We will save the rest for later. That's now going to simmer for 10 minutes, which is about how long it's going to take to prep your pasta.

Cook the Pasta

Now, the secret with the pasta is we're going to cook it 1 or 2 minutes less than the directions on the package. I want the pasta to finish cooking with the sauce.

After you drain your pasta (do not rinse), you put in back in the pot and pour over the hot tuna sauce. Give it a mix.

Add Parmesan Cheese to the Spaghetti al Tonno

I'm going to now add the rest of the parsley and an ingredient I didn't mention - a little Parmesan.

Now, people say you can never put cheese with a seafood pasta, but these people are crazy because it's delicious with a tuna pasta. So, just a little bit, maybe 3-4 tablespoons.

And here's the secret: let it rest for 5 minutes, and the heat from the sauce and the pasta will continue the cooking and you have perfect spaghetti al tonno.

I really hope you give this a try. It's fast, it's flavorful, and it's really delicious.

Thanks for watching. To learn more, visit us on the Web at food.about.com.

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