Recipe - Tuna Pasta Bake

Hello again and welcome to another recipe Monday. Today I have another firm favourite meal from my family vault to share with you. This is another one I can usually guarantee that Miss K won't turn her nose up at, but I haven't made the mistake of serving it every week yet for fear that she'll get tired of it and start refusing to eat it like she did with the Dim Sims. So sit back and grab a pencil and pad while I teach you how to make a Tuna Pasta Bake.

Again apologies for the terrible photo, if any of you would like to donate a DSLR camera to a good cause I'm happy to give you my mailing address...

You'll notice that this meal isn't nearly as caramelised as the taco lasagna that I showed you last week, that is because this one is a lot quicker to cook, so you don't need tin foil on the tray to protect the cheese from becoming a fossil. So despite the terrible photography, I don't need to rely on Martha Stewart to make my meal look good this week. Success!!!

Alright before I send you off to the kitchen to cook this, I will send you to the supermarket with a shopping list that looks like this.

2 cups Penne pasta

1 400g tuna in springwater

1 tin tomatoes 

2 cups grated cheese

1 - 2 cups chopped mushrooms

1 sachet of chicken chasseur flavouring (or similar tomato based flavour packet)

salt and pepper to season

So you've gone up the street, you've bought your ingredients and they're sitting on the bench staring at you. Now what? well be patient and keep reading and prepare to be amazed.

First pre-heat your oven to 180 degrees Celsius. (That's approximately 356 degrees Fahrenheit for any of my American friends.)

Boil your pasta according to the instructions on the packet. 

While the pasta is boiling, combine the tinned tomatoes, the sachet of flavouring and half a cup of water in a saucepan. 

Bring the tomato mixture to the boil then remove from the heat.

Add the tuna and mushrooms (and any other vegetables you feel like sneaking in there) to the tomato mix and stir well. Season the mixture with salt and pepper as desired

Once the pasta is boiled, drain out the water, then combine the tomato mix and the pasta and stir well.

Transfer the mixture to an ovenproof dish and sprinkle the grated cheese on top. If you want to you can sprinkle cheese into the mixture as you are spooning it into the dish as well, just to make sure the cheesyness spreads throughout the whole dish.

Bake in the oven for approximately 20 minutes, until the cheese is golden brown.

And there you have it. A meal for 4 - 6 people, depending on how big you like to slice things. This is one of my all time favourite meals, and I hope you guys can enjoy it too. 

Well that's all from me today, except to let you guys know that the lovely Jamie from Being Positive with a Depressive Soul has accepted her Liebster Award today on her blog, so you can go check it out now. The lucky duck got two nominations this week so there is twice as much fun to see.