Tuna Pasta Bake

 

Hey guys!

I put up the wrong products for this one, so massive apologies. It’s a delish tuna bake using Miyoko’s vegan cheese products which are amazing. They are the best substitute for mozarella and crisp.

Ingredients

  • Tomatoes on the Vine

  • Red Sweet Pointed Peppers

  • Passata

  • Tomato Paste

  • Tomato Ketchup

  • Red Wine Vinegar

  • Oregano

  • Fresh Basil

  • Black Pepper

  • Olive Oil

  • Vegan Butter (Miyokos)

  • Alpro Soy Cream

  • Vegan Mozarella (Miyokos)

  • Vegan Tuna alternative (Plant Pioneers)

  • Capers

  • Large Shell Pasta

  • Salt

So this one is really easy but it’s got a lot of steps, and that’s how I best create the flavour. So what I do is I roast on the vine some delicious fresh tomatoes, you don’t need to add anything to them but if you wanted to air fry them for 10 minutes on high, or even just in the oven at 180 for about 20 minutes. You want them to start to break down and the skins to soften. If you are particular about tomato skins, you can peel them at this point but I think they work really nicely.

Then I start to fry some sweet pointed peppers, I used two and then I chopped some basil, oregano and some black pepper. I love garlic but my family don’t, so I leave it out. I also prefer peppercorns and they hate those too! But you can use them here as I love them. Add a splash of red wine vinegar and soften the peppers. Add in two tbsp of tomato puree, a small square packet of passata which I guess is like a cup? Then the roasted tomatoes. Do this all on high, and then once you start seeing that slight caramelisation in the pan, reduce to a simmer.

After about 15 minutes, then add the soy cream, which at this point can be a bit of an annoyance because it can split slightly if too high. At this salt cold water, add your pasta shells, bring to a boil and that will take again about 15 minutes to cook them to al dente. You don’t want them too soft as we’re baking them at the end. Then we add some capers to our sauce, however many you fancy, I did a couple of large deserts spoons. The photos above are a little bit around the wrong way, it starts to look marbleised them looks like a rich orangey soupy colour. Then we add our no chuna plant pioneers genius product which is flavoured with lemon, which adds to the sauce.

Now add a splash of pasta water to the sauce, and transfer your cooked pasta to a colander. One lesson I got taught after many failed attempts at cooking cheese dishes and not understanding why they were going weird and watery… Is if you put your sauces on HOT cauliflower/pasta/grains the sauce separates when you recook it. So at this stage you are washing the pasta shells to cool them down. They need to be cold so just gently cool them down. Then transfer them to your pan, mix together and top with Miyokos delicious mozzarella alternative.

Put it under the grill for about 7 minutes, but watch it as it could burn. It’s amazing. So yummy!

Go have it with some tenderstem brocolli and lemon.

 
Joseph Harwood