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Dinner

Tuna pasta bake

Store-cupboard dinner for the night nobody shopped. Cheap, fast, and freezes.

Servings
4
Total
30 min
Skill
Easy

What you need

Ingredients

Making for

4 servings

  • Whole-grain pasta4 oz
  • Canned light tuna0.5 each
  • Marinara sauce0.5 cup
  • Broccoli0.5 cup
  • Cheddar slices1 each

Quantities scale linearly with servings. Round to the nearest practical amount when shopping.

Steps

  1. 1

    Undercook the pasta by two minutes

    16 oz of whole-grain pasta, two minutes short of the box time. It cooks again in the oven, and pasta taken to al dente in the pot comes out of the bake soft.

  2. 2

    Drain the tuna properly

    Two cans, drained hard, pressed against the lid. Tuna water left in makes the bake watery and gives it the smell people associate with tuna bake going wrong.

  3. 3

    Fold everything cold, then bake

    Pasta, tuna, 2 cups of marinara, 2 cups of broccoli florets, folded gently in the dish. Cheese over the top. 375F for 20 minutes until the top is browned and the edges bubble.

    20:00

Coach's notes

  • Canned tuna is one of the cheapest protein sources there is, at about 25 g a can.
  • Light tuna rather than albacore for a child. It is consistently lower in mercury, and the FDA lists it among the best choices for children.
  • Broccoli goes in raw. It cooks perfectly in the twenty minutes and one less pan gets washed.
  • This is the recipe for a Thursday when the plan has fallen apart.