Cheesy Tuna Bake

Thursday 29 January 2015

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The Toddster is always after me to cook using things that we have in our store cupboard.  He is always complaining about how much we have stored.   It is useless for me to explain to him that your cupboards may be full, but in a lot of cases they are full of ingredients that you put together with other things to make a meal . . .

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For example.  I may have six jars of various different olives in my store cupboard, but we are not going to sit down and eat a jar of olives for supper . . . know what I mean?   It's the same with a tin of tomatoes, or tinned corned beef, tuna, etc.   You can use them for parts of a meal, but you will still have to go out and buy fresh ingredients to put with them.

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He might be happy sitting down to a supper which consists of a tin of spam, a tin of new potatoes and a tin of green beans . . .  but it's not gonna happen if I have anything to say about it!  To me a store cupboard meal is like the one I am showing you here today.  I have used a tin of tuna from my store cupboard . . .  a package of pasta from my cupboard . . .  two economical ingredients to have stored in the house . . . and some mayonnaise and Dijon mustard which I pretty much always have in the house.

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But I have added fresh ingredients such as sour cream,  milk and cheese to it, along with some frozen peas.  I do tend to have frozen peas in the freezer all the time as well.   But basically with any store cupboard, no matter how much you have stored in it . . .  you will still need fresh ingredients to put with them to make a meal.

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It is slowly starting to sink into his male brain . . .  but men do take a lot of convincing at times . . .  and this is a man who basically ate out of tins before we got married.  For twelve years.  I know . . . the mind boggles.

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This is a tasty casserole.  It's simple to make.  Easy.  Economical and delicious.  I think you will like it.  I like to buy expensive tuna . . .  yes, even in casseroles.  An old Italian woman once told me that if it wasn't albacore tuna it was garbage.   Old women know best.  Now I am an old woman and I am telling you . . .  albacore tuna is the best, flavour wise . . .  looks wise, etc.  This is where you really do get what you pay for and it's worth the little bit extra to buy quality.

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*Cheesy Tuna Bake*
Serves 4 to 6

A simple and easy casserole which is a store cupboard favourite and so delicious!   

500g of uncooked pasta (about a pound)
(You will want a shell type of pasta or a cupped pasta that will hold the sauce)
345g of sour cream (1 1/2 cups)
120g of good quality mayonnaise (1/2 cup)
180ml of milk (3/4 cup)
90g of grated Parmesan Cheese (1/2 cup)
1 TBS Dijon mustard
1/2 tsp fine sea salt
1/4 tsp black pepper
1/2 tsp dried dill
150g of frozen peas, unthawed (1 cup)
2 (200g) tin of good tuna, drained and flaked (2 6oz. tin)
4 spring onions, chopped
180g of grated cheddar cheese, divided (1 1/2 cups)


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Preheat the oven to 180*C/350*F/ gas mark 4.  Butter a shallow large casserole dish.  Set aside.

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Bring a lightly salted pot of water to the boil.  Cook the pasta according to the package directions.  Drain and rinse.  Whisk the sour cream, mayonnaise, milk, Dijon mustard,  Parmesan cheese, and 1/2 of the cheddar cheese together with the flaked tuna, spring onions, peas, dill and seasoning.   Fold in the cooked pasta.  Pour this mixture into the prepared baking dish, smooth over and cover tightly with foil.   Bake for 40 minutes.  Uncover and sprinkle with the remaining cheese and bake for a further five to ten minutes until the cheese melts.  Serve hot.

15 comments

  1. Greetings Marie, I've been meaning to stop by and wish you a Very Happy 2015, so before we hit Feb, fondest wishes to you and thanks for all the fab recipes and wonderful downloadable recipe books which were nifty and awesome to use over the hol's. Super recipes!

    This post made me LOL right at my desk at work, you're a brilliant bright star in my daily site visits. I will check in with my DH to check if he will eat tuna, it's something we rarely have in our pantry, but this looks delish.

    Thanks again ~ Terese, OR

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  2. Ahh Merry Petal you have made me smile. 😄
    Thank you so much for your lovely comment. All the best to you in 2015 as well, and I really mean it. Out of the thousands who visit my page each day, I get very few comments, so when I do get one or two, it really makes my day! I hope you do get to make this! It's really good! Xx

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  3. Memories of the early years of our marriage when a simpler version of this was one of our weekly meals. Filling, lots of veg protein and cards. It's been 25 years and we still make it form time to time. Unfortunately even tuna is getting expensive.

    Incidentally while men rarely wear the pants in a marriage, some of us do wear the apron. My beloved will look in the pantry or the fridge and declare we have nothing to make for dinner. A while later I will have made a frittata or carbonara sauce.

    And yes when once faced with a jar of olives, a couple of capers and little else, I made pasta puttanesca.

    Spouses - easy to love as long as you keep them out of the kitchen. ;)

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  4. Ahh Pat, it, and casseroles like this are certainly the backbone of thrift. Good tuna is pricey, admittedly... But still worth it in a casserole like this where it is the star! Yes, pasta puttanesca is a favorite of mine too! I dread getting to the point where I would need to rely on Todd's cooking skills. Blecch! Lol xoxo

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  5. I baked your Custard Corn Cake with Blueberries and Honey on Sunday, and it was extraordinary.
    It's the little things that are the big things, your tag system is so helpful - I use it often to find recipes on your site that I have bookmarked in my "to do" brain folder. After Pat's comment I think I might substitute bacon with tuna if my sweetie veto's the fish. I'm sure that would keep anyone happy! Thanks and ... Ta-ra until next time!

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  6. wow Marie. I made the Cheesy Tuna Bake for our dinner on January 29th. It's been a long time since we have had a tuna casserole and this sounded good. It is absolutely delicious!! My husband said he wants this one again. I actually cut the recipe in half because its just the two of us, and it worked out great. YUM !!

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  7. Pat, I meant to add, that I think men like you are an exception to the rule! My ex made great bread, spaghetti sauce and cooked a fab turkey!

    Merry Petals, so glad you enjoyed the Custard Corn Cake. I wish I had known more when I began this blog about indexing, etc. I would have created an index for all the recipes, but with the number of recipes I have now, it would be impossible, Still I am glad that you are able to make some sense of it! Thanks! xx

    Sms2874, thank you so much for taking the time to let me know that you and your husband enjoyed this!! So happy about that! I cut it in half as well as there are only three of us in this house. xx

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  8. First, I want to say that I have been making lots of your recipes and I'm in love. Thank you so much! I have a question though, I notice you always say to cover the dish with foil when baking. All my casserole dishes have lids. Can I just use the lid rather than the foil?

    Suzanne, Kansas, USA

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  9. Thanks for your lovely comment Suzanne! You most certainly can cover with a lid instead of foil. Most of my casseroles don't have lids, so that's why I use foil!!

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  10. I'm making this dish tomorrow night. Yum! xoxo

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  11. I hope you like it Valerie!! What am I saying? Of course you will! xoxo

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  12. This sounds an ideal dish for these cold days and like you, I have everything I need to hand. It sounds a lot like a dish that my nana used to make. She'd use mixed frozen winter vegetables and a breadcrumb topping (or even crushed Weetabix - always thrifty my nana!) We loved it, but I haven't thought about it in years. I'll have to revisit it next week I think.

    I absolutely agree with you about a well stocked pantry. My hubby was a daily shopper before I met him. Not only was it more expensive to shop that way, it was wasteful and not really well balanced nutritionally. Now we have full cupboards and I can create a meal quite easly from what we have at home. I never waste anything and always know what I have and then it's easy to buy the fresh ingredients to complement those cupboard stores.

    He told me recently that he now eats like a king and that we spend even less on food for the two of us than he spent on food for one! Just goes to show, doesn't it?

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  13. Not surprised we agree on this Marie! I admit groceries cost us more now than they did Todd before we got married, but you can't really compare his diet then and his diet now! He eats much healthier now!! I try not to waste anything either! It's cold and wet here but no reall snow in Chester! Xxoo

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  14. yum... could this be made up & frozen ?
    would love to add this to my freezer meal category ..

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    1. I couldn't say so with any authority Gracie because I have never done so. My thoughts are that the Mayonnaise and sour cream would split. Xo

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