Monday, November 15, 2010

Pesto pasta and tuna “meatballs”

Pesto pasta and tuna “meatballs” / Espaguete ao pesto com almôndegas de atum

My grandmother is a very creative cook – sometimes, too creative.

A friend of mine from school once had lunch at my house and told grandma that the breaded fish was delicious, to what granny replied “oh, sweetie, thank you! But that is not fish – it’s banana skin”. :D

After that story I bet that tuna “meatballs” sound perfectly normal to you. :D

Pesto pasta and tuna “meatballs”
adapted from Australian Gourmet Traveller

Meatballs:
2 x 185g cans tuna, drained
1 cup fresh breadcrumbs
2 tablespoons chopped parsley
1 tablespoon chopped chives
¼ cup pine nuts
finely grated zest of 1 lemon
1 egg
1 tablespoon olive oil

Pasta and sauce:
400g spaghetti
¼ cup pesto sauce
¾ cup (180ml) heavy cream
finely grated parmesan and fresh basil, to serve

Place tuna, breadcrumbs, parsley, chives, pine nuts, lemon zest and egg in the bowl of a food processor and pulse until combined. Roll tablespoons of the mixture into balls. Heat oil in a non-stick frying pan over high heat. Add the tuna meatballs and cook, turning, for 2-3 minutes or until golden. Keep warm in the oven.
Cook pasta in a saucepan of salted boiling water until al dente. In the meantime, add the pesto and cream to the saucepan you cooked the meatballs in (remove excess oil if necessary) and heat over medium heat. Drain the pasta, add the sauce and toss gently to combine. Top with the meatballs, sprinkle with parmesan and basil leaves and serve.

Serves 4 – I halved the recipe above, used 1 ½ packed tablespoons of mixture per meatball and got 12 (I used the whole egg and the mixture was easy to roll into balls)

8 comments:

Priya Suresh said...

Real feast for people like me, droolworthy dish..

cardamomseeds said...

Well, I never thought of "updating" the traditional recipe with meatballs to tuna ones. Great, thanks for the inspiration!

Kara said...

Nice dish! I'm getting hungrier as I type this.

Patricia Scarpin said...

Priya, thank you! I hope you give these a try.

Cardamom Seeds, thank you for stopping by! I'm glad you like these!

Kimberley said...

I love this! I think it's a genius idea for tuna with pasta.

Xiaolu @ 6 Bittersweets said...

I don't think I have this issue yet but this sounds and looks like an awesome dinner. I can't wait to try it. Never made canned tuna into anything this fancy.

Patricia Scarpin said...

Hey, Kimberley! Thank you for stopping by!

Xiaolu, that is an old issue, from last year, if I'm not mistaken. I'm glad you like the recipe, sweetie!
xx

BeadBag said...

This dish looks very pretty (and tasty) - will be trying them out.
kind regards, Shirley I.

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