Guest Post by Sophie Minchilli:
The other day I found myself at home for lunch, and starving (what else is new). However, I hadn’t planned on cooking anything for lunch, so I had to improvise. I knew I wanted a plate of pasta, so I checked my fridge and pantry to see what I could find to make the pasta dish extra delicious. This is what I found:
pasta
1 head of radicchio
1 small onion
1 can of tuna
a handful of black olives
olive oil
So Pasta with Radicchio seemed the obvious choice.
I had never made this dish, but somehow it’s these improvised ‘pantry meals’ that always turn out the best for me. Here is what I did with these ingredients. I guess I got very good at working with what I had during our time in Umbria last spring. We certainly never went hungry (!) but the added bonus was thinking up new combinations of ingredients that would never have occurred to us before.
So, radicchio, tuna, onions and olives? While I could have made a salad, isn’t pasta always the better answer to life’s questions?
Pasta with Radicchio & Tuna
Yield 2
I wouldn’t add any grated cheese on the pasta because of the tuna, but if you want cheese it can easily become a delicious vegetarian dish if you don’t use any tuna
Ingredients
- 250gr of pasta
- 1 head of radicchio
- 1 small onion
- 1/4 tsp salt
- 1 can of olive oil packed tuna
- a handful of black olives
- olive oil
Instructions
Start by putting a pot of water to boil. Once it boils, add a handful of coarse salt and then throw your pasta in.
Chop the onion in small pieces
Thinly slice the radicchio
Take the pits out of the olives
Add 1/4 cup of olive oil to a large sauté pan and let it warm up (about 30 seconds). Add the onion and let cook until softened and gold (about 1 minute).
Add the radicchio and salt and let cook until it wilts completely (about 5 minutes).
Lastly, add your can of tuna, with the oil from the can, and the olives and keep stirring them around the pan with the radicchio.
Drain your pasta when it’s about 2 minuted away from being al dente (reserve a full cup of the pasta cooking water) and add the pasta to the pan with the radicchio and tuna. Keep stirring it around the pan, while slowly adding some of the pasta cooking water. This will keep cooking the pasta while also making the ‘sauce’ more creamy. You probably won't need the full cup.
Drizzle your best extra virgin oil and season with peperoncino (chili flakes)
To see other recipes by Sophie visit her IGTV channel
And to find out more about Sophie’s market tours in Rome, visit her website
I had tried and failed to like radicchio over the years, but this year it clicked. A farm in my area is growing interesting Italian heirloom varieties–the light pink one is my favorite, castelfranco I believe. But even their regular heads surpass the ones in the store. This would make a lovely lunch!
Sunny summery pre Christmas evening in Sydney, Australia . The perfect dinner for two, before the rush to the coast (and the beach) on Monday for Christmas . Thank you – it was delicious ! Liz