In the kitchen with Phlip -- Tuna Pasta with Chickpeas

Trolling the interwebs on Friday afternoon at work, I saw this on MSN...
[link]
I was caught by a headline that said "Quick and healthy recipes" or something of the sort, along with a promise that they could usually be made from things already in the pantry. Okay, I'm game.
I am gonna look and see what it is about, what have I got to lose?

They called for "Fedelini," which for all intents and purposes is nothing more than some damned noodles, so we will see me using regular thin Spaghetti. You can also expect that I will not traipse about Greensboro NC looking for Fennel seeds, nor will I be seeking further information on anything named "Orange Zest."

[bloggers note: this morning, I actually was told that it is nothing more than the shavings of the orange peel... I still didn't seek it]

Things being as they were, I had EVERYTHING (considering my variations) on hand to make this right here in the house, so I am going in!!!

Let's start this thing off with a toolkit, with no specifics on order of presentation.


Diced tomatoes


Chickpeas


Noodles!!!


Tuna... Recipe only mentions one can, but I will be damned if I don't actually want to taste the meat in what I prepare.


Vegetable oil, I won't need the whole bottle, of course.


An onion.


Fresh Parsley

And now, with the major items established, we can start cooking. I will spare you the details of seasonings and such, know they'll get used and used well.

We start things off, as the recipe states, by slicing the onion and cooking them down in a pan in the oil:




Then add the salt/pepper and Fennel Seeds and Orange Zest and cook for about a minute longer, then add the tomatoes and cover the pot, turn it down a bit and let it simmer for about 10 minutes:


Yes, sometimes seasonings make things look strange.

[note, you SHOULD be boiling your noodles right now as well]



Add the undrained tuna -- the oil it is packed in is considered in the prep -- and chickpeas to the sauce now, stir it up and take it off the heat now.



Go ahead and have your parsley chopped up as well:



Drain the noodles, DO NOT RINSE THEM [never rinse your noodles or rice after boiling] and keep about a half a cup of the water you'd boiled them in, you WILL need some, you might need more...
Toss the noodles with the sauce, adding in your parsley if you used it, and add about a quarter cup of that noodle water, if it still seems too thick, add more to your preference.


Personally, I was fine with it standing kind of thick.

Guess what?
That's IT!!!
Get a beverage, watch the game and enjoy what you have just prepared.
This is actually not a bad dish at all, you have tuna for protein; chickpeas for calcium, fiber, iron (for you anemics and nose bleeders), and UNsaturated fat; tomatoes for vitamin C and antioxidants; and of course noodles because pasta is everyone's weakness.
Good, good, good and you still can feel like you get your "cheat" as well. Time will tell whether or not this becomes a part of the rotation on the regular.
I tasted it just now, even though it is nowhere NEAR time to eat:



If you clicked the link at the beginning of this blog, you would notice that theirs looks considerably different from mine, but that is LITERALLY always the case when it comes to these things for some reason.
I will, however, advise that this is likely to become a regular part of the rotation, because it happens to be damned tasty.

Total prep time if you plan ahead and have shit ready as it comes on deck should be no more than about 40-45 minutes, that is about how long it took me.

Comments

Tony Grands said…
Can I say...

I admire you for taking such a "hands-on" approach @ things. Kudos (no sarcasm-everybody likes praise).

& secondly, Fennel seeds & Orange zest would have been replaced with sunflower seeds & a splash of Sunny D if that were me....

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