Southern Bluefin Tuna Pasta Bake is as delicious as it sounds. A really easy recipe to make at home and would work with most meaty fish but it works especially well with Tuna. Im still absolutely high on life from the Southern Bluefin Tuna I shot down in Victoria back in March. The flavours and melting on my tongue will stick with me forever.
Now, you can substitute the tuna in the recipe for any of the tuna family such as yellow fin, dogtooth tuna etc etc, but it even goes well with some of the smaller tuna cousins such as Bonito. It does work okay with some other fish but id personally keep tuna bake as tuna bake... Ive experimented and have nothing exciting to report with other species of fish.
Prep Time: 15 mins
Cook Time: 40 mins
Total Time: 55 mins
Taste 10/10
Tuna Pasta Bake Ingredients
500g-ish Southern Bluefin Tuna
500g Fusilli Pasta - ive used fusilli but this is a personal preference
70g-ish Butter
70g-ish Plain White Flour
800ml-ish of Milk
350g-ish of strong cheddar, grated
(i used Percorino Romano i'm cooking with southern bluefin tuna here i might as well go premium with the cheese and the flavour is amazing.)
2 Cans of Sweetcorn Kernels
Parsley
Himalayan Pink Salt
Freshly cracked Black Pepper
Items Needed
A Pot
A Sharp Knife
Stirring device such as a spoon
A Big Baking Tray
Method:
Alright so start by whacking the oven onto the standard 180C on a fan assisted setting. Remove the milk from the fridge (im not sure on the science but I prefer adding cool not cold milk to the pan)
Drain your tins of sweetcorn. Then cut your tuna ( fish ) into nice meaty chunks like half an inch to an inch.
Boil up and undercook your pasta by about 2 minutes, so if it states 10 minutes to cook boil it for 8. The rest of the cooking will be completed in the oven. Whilst waiting chop up your parsley to make it as fine as to your preference.
Melt your butter into a saucepan on a medium heat and gradually stir in the flour. I prefer doing this gradually to ensure the flour doesn't burn before its mixed in with the butter. Next up start adding your milk, again you want to add this gradually and just stir it in with your stirring device = spoon. Keep stirring until you have a beautiful thick sauce. Once at your desired level of thickness remove from heat and add you 90% of your grated cheese. Once again stir this in and it'll melt and smell incredible. If you are using the percorino it won't melt like a standard cheddar this is fine.
Drain the pasta, and mix it with the white sauce then add your chunks of tuna, drained sweetcorn, chopped parsley and mix it around and then season with salt and pepper to your taste.
Put the entire mix into your baking tray and spread it evenly, add the last of your grated cheese on top of your tuna pasta mix.
Top Tip for an Extra Something Something:
You can also add crisps (cold chips) to the top and put the cheese on top this is bloody yum and I thank Chef Josh Goulding for teaching me this epic crunchy addition.
Place the tray into the oven and bake for between 15-20 mins until the cheese is perfectly golden and crispy on top.
Thats it and I hope you enjoy this recipe has evolved over the years and was one of my favourite meals to cook and take with me when spearfishing. Even to the point during the winter in Torquay, UK it wouldn't be an uncommon sight to see a teenage me spearfishing with a tupperware container attached to my float. Sometimes id eat it on the beach and sometimes I would just drop my weight belt float and eat the pasta whilst floating in the ocean. This was back in the day where I used to eat commercial caught seafood and I can tell you for sure I never had southern bluefin tuna in my pasta bake... oh how times have changed.
If you enjoyed this recipe or have some other hot tips for a pasta bake feel free to comment below.