One of my all-time favorite go-to pasta meals is spaghetti al tonno. I enjoy traditional meat sauces just as much as the next half-Italian, but when I want a weeknight supper that is quick and simple, I turn to tuna. What if you’re not a fan of fish? So this is ideal. The flavor and consistency are actually more akin to a veal sauce than a fish sauce.
| Prep Time: | 20 mins |
| Cook Time: | 35 mins |
| Total Time: | 55 mins |
| Servings: | 4 |
| Yield: | 4 servings |
Ingredients
- 2 tablespoons olive oil
- 1 anchovy fillet
- 2 tablespoons capers
- 3 cloves minced garlic
- ½ cup dry white wine
- ¼ teaspoon dried oregano
- 1 pinch red pepper flakes, or to taste
- 3 cups crushed Italian (plum) tomatoes (such as San Marzano)
- salt and ground black pepper to taste
- 1 pinch cayenne pepper, or to taste
- 1 (7 ounce) can oil-packed tuna, drained
- ¼ cup chopped fresh flat-leaf parsley
- 1 (12 ounce) package spaghetti
- 1 tablespoon extra-virgin olive oil, or to taste
- ¼ cup freshly grated Parmigiano-Reggiano cheese, or to taste
- 1 tablespoon chopped fresh flat-leaf parsley, or to taste
Instructions
- Heat olive oil in a large saucepan over medium heat. Cook and stir anchovy and capers in hot oil until anchovy crumbles, about 2 minutes. Add garlic; cook and stir until fragrant, about 1 minute.
- Pour white wine, oregano, and red pepper flakes into the skillet and increase heat to high; cook until mixture reduces and about 3 tablespoons of liquid remain, 2 to 4 minutes.
- Stir tomatoes into the skillet and bring to a simmer. Season tomato mixture with salt, black pepper, and cayenne pepper. Reduce heat to medium and simmer until slightly reduced, about 10 minutes.
- Stir tuna and 1/4 cup parsley into tomato sauce, breaking up tuna with a wooden spoon while stirring. Reduce heat to medium-low and simmer for about 10 minutes.
- Bring a large pot of lightly salted water to a boil. Cook spaghetti in the boiling water, stirring occasionally until almost cooked through and still slightly firm to the bite, 9 to 11 minutes. Drain and transfer spaghetti back to the pot.
- Pour tomato sauce over spaghetti into the pot; stir to combine, cover the pot with a lid, and let sit until spaghetti is cooked through, about 3 minutes. Ladle spaghetti into bowls, drizzle with extra-virgin olive oil, and sprinkle Parmigiano-Reggiano cheese and parsley over the top.
Nutrition Facts
| Calories | 620 kcal |
| Carbohydrate | 80 g |
| Cholesterol | 14 mg |
| Dietary Fiber | 7 g |
| Protein | 31 g |
| Saturated Fat | 3 g |
| Sodium | 707 mg |
| Sugars | 3 g |
| Fat | 18 g |
| Unsaturated Fat | 0 g |
Reviews
Yummy! Made it as written except I used anchovy paste instead of an anchovy. Family loved it!
Took a lot longer than I expected to make but we loved it!!!
One word; WOW! I was very nervous to make this! I couldn’t imagine the flavor combination of tuna with spaghetti. I’m brave with new flavors but this tested me and was the BEST surprise! Made a few but very uber minor changes; added a small, diced onion – sautéd just a few min before actually doing step 1 and used a squirt of anchovy paste vs the actual anchovy. Used full tsp oregano and 1/8 tsp red pepper flakes and cayenne since we can handle the heat. Finally, simmered the tomatoes/tuna mix closer to 20 min because pasta got a slow start. This made the tuna super tender and flavorful. I am a full disclosure cook, meaning I will always tell someone what’s in the recipe before serving if they ask. Tonight was the first time I held back that info until we tried. We were both shocked how much we love this! Did NOT taste like tuna! Almost like chicken!? The capers, wine, seasonings – all just made this amazing! Served with cheese bread. Chef John! I love learning new recipes from you! Thank you!! Will make again!
I was skeptical of the tuna in tomato sauce concept but it’s actually very good. Easy recipe, tasty dinner
This is another Chef John genius recipe, with the anchovies, capers, garlic and white wine. I did not have regular anchovies but had a can of parsley marinated that tasted more like tuna. I put a 28 oz diced tomatoes in my mini food processor to achieve crushed tomatoes. I used two small cans of tuna in water and added more oil to the sauce. I used more red pepper flakes vs adding cayenne, the spice is essential to the taste.I will definitely make this many more times.
This was a huge hit with my husband. He made a face when I told him we were having pasta with tuna fish, but we both found it delicious! I used 2 cans of the tuna in oil…I didn’t think one was enough. The capers and anchovies really make the flavor. You can keep all the ingredients on hand, so It’s easy and quick to make when your short on time. Very rich and satisfying!
The sauce was really delicious, and similar to a puttanesca, but I’d rather just go for the puttanesca because the tuna threw the texture off a bit for me. Make sure you keep some pasta water handy, I needed quite a bit to keep it simmering well and mix in the pasta.
First made this in college when I was very poor. It is a BEAST of a meal, stinks up the house, but man it feeds well. Just don’t make it before a date. If you don’t like tuna a lot, skip this one. I made this recipe exact and liked it a lot.
Used good tuna in olive oil but it still had a slightly fishy taste which was much worse the next day. It’s not a dish for leftovers. DOn’t think I’ll make again.
Loved it! Out of parsley, so I used fresh basil instead. And I had no anchovies or paste, so I threw in 1/2 tsp fish sauce before the wine. Simmered on low for over an hour and it was awesome, everything blended beautifully. Will definitely make it again, so budget friendly too!
DELISH!!!!
I tricked my kids into eating tuna with this…you cannot taste fish because the tomato covers it. Healthier than Italian sausage!
This was so good it instantly became one of my wife’s favorites! I’d upload a picture, but it looked exactly like the picture on the recipe…
I made this last night and it is truly among the best meals you can make from stuff you already have around the house. I’ve had this type of meal with crab meat since I was a kid catching blue claws at the Jersey Shore so I hoped this cheaper, on hand option was good. It sure is. It’s not as sweet as crab, but as John says, it’s meatier. Two notes – cans of tuna are not generally 7 oz so I used the large 9 oz can. Dry pasta comes as 16 oz, but 8 – 12 oz is all you should make to let this sauce take center stage. I used angel hair pasta which is not really my favorite, next time I will use cavatelli (the preferred pasta for crab gravy) or rotelli which will hold the sauce much better. This recipe is truly a keeper!
5 stars but only provisionally, contingent on using only yellow fin tuna, canned (Genova is a very good brand) or fresh, as per Dale below. Remember when that singer Jessica Simpson became an internet laughingstock for asking her boyfriend “Is Chicken-of-the-Sea really chicken?” Silly as she was, she did have kind of a point. Most American canned tuna is almost tasteless, and a lot of it is (I think) not quite tuna but the related species bonito and albacore. Anyway, tasteless!
a bit too fishy for me
Made exactly according to recipe. It was so bad even the racoons wouldn’t eat it! Can’t even think about anything that would improve it. What a mess.
Delicious! I didn’t have any parsley and it was still delicious. I will definitely make this again.
My Mother use to make this all the time when I was kid. She said she got the recipe from a neighbor when we lived in Sicily. My Dad and brother never liked it, so me and my Mother would dive right it and eat as much as we could. My Mother passed away when I was in my early teens. So, I never had the recipe to cook it for myself. Thank you Chef John for bringing this delicious recipe back into my life.
Well let me say first that I used Chef John’s Olive Oil Poached Tuna for this recipe which is a great way to prepare Tuna! This recipe was easy to make but the sauce left me a little off, I made the sauce exactly as called for but continued to add more oregano along with slat and pepper to move it away from an acidic tomato flavor, I never added sugar but might have some on hand the next time around. While the sauce never got to exactly where I wanted it was very good!
My family was apprehensive at first but this is our new friday night tuna standby