Tuesday, September 23, 2014

Tuna Tetrazzini

When we arrived home from Gabe's parents place, you know there was nothing in the house to make dinner. It's a good thing the pizza parlor is five minutes up the road.

Gabe finished the last of the pizza slices for lunch the next day. What was I going to make for dinner?

Won't be long before we get back in the truck and head to our little home in Florida and see Leda. The freezer is almost empty and I'm trying to use up what I have so I won't have to bring it down with us. You know how I hate to throw anything  away.

I had some can tuna. I made a few casseroles awhile back from  Carol and Marlene recipes and both were wonderful but as usual I had no idea where the recipes are.  Headed over to pinterest and found this recipe from Zestuous. I think what grabbed me was that it had Tony Chachere’s Cajun Seasoning in it. 

Gabe would never refuse a meal containing pasta so I was on a roll. He would be happy and I would get to use up cheese, pasta and the tuna.

I did not add frozen peas. Gabe will only eat can peas. I'm not a fan of canned peas but he loves them so into the tetrazzini they went.

 Had a tiny amount of the spicy panko left so sprinkled some on top but I had a sleeve of Town House crackers that were starting to go. Crushed them up and sprinkled them on top. You just got to think outside of the box!

He liked this- I don't eat pasta but half the casserole is gone so it must be pretty good.

Ingredients:

1 13.5-oz. box thin spaghetti
1 tablespoon butter (see note below)
½ cup onion, diced
½ cup celery, diced
1 ½ cups tuna
½ cup frozen peas, thawed ( can peas)
3 tablespoons butter (margarine)
¼ cup flour
2 cups milk (evaporated milk)
8 ozs. (2 cups) cheddar cheese
1 tsp. salt ( didn't use)
½ tsp. Tony Chachere’s Cajun Seasoning
Panko breadcrumbs

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Place the pasta in a large pot of boiling water and cook the pasta until it's al dente. Once it's cooked - drain into a colander and run some cold water over. Set aside.

Cut up the onion and celery. I didn't have any butter left so I sauteed the diced onion and celery in a tablespoon of olive oil until the celery was soft and the onion was translucent.

Next step is the sauce- the recipe used weekend morney (cheese) sauce. This is an easy sauce to make.

Melt the butter ( I used margarine) in a medium pot over low- medium heat. You don't want to burn the butter so keep an eye on it.

Slowly add the flour to the butter and whisk until all the flour has been incorporated. It thickens up to a nice roux.

Add the milk a little at a time to the roux and continue to stir. I add milk stir, add some of the cheese stir and continue till all the milk and cheese has been combined. Just remember to keep stirring.

The sauce thicken up and in about 10 minutes you should have a nice thick sauce. 

Add salt (if using) and the Tony Chachere’s Cajun Seasoning. ( I did a taste test to check on the degree of spice we like- passed the Linda test)

In a large bowl add the pasta which was been drained and cooled, the tuna( also drained), onions and celery. Combine all the ingredients.

Pour the sauce over the pasta mixture and mix well.

Since I used canned peas I slowly folded in the peas. I had to be careful or they would of been mush.

Sprinkled with the tiny amount of spicy panko and used a sleeve of  crushed Town House crackers for the topping.

Bake in your preheated 350 degree oven for 20- 25 minutes.

I baked the casserole uncovered.


I dislike taking photos of casseroles- this was the best I could get on this dish.


23 comments:

  1. I've made tetrazzini before but never with tuna, only chicken....would never have thought of using tuna but it does make sense.......it's kind of like tuna casserole so why not? Bob would love this-minus the peas that is.........those would send him running for the hills!

    I bet Gabe was VERY happy to see pasta hit the table. :)

    I'm with you on photographing casseroles.....they're stinkers. Your photo came out great!

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    1. LOL Carol! You know me and pasta. A taste may touch these lips but I don't gobble it up like Gabe does.

      Gabe loves his can peas, his favorite way to have them-on top of mashed potatoes!

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  2. Same here, I've always done chicken. Casseroles are a PITA to photograph but I think you did a great job. It was finally cooler yesterday, not by much but it was actually nice outside. Thanks for the recipe, it's now in my "winter" file... I'm praying it gets cold here soon! Have you tried the quinoa pasta? I've seen it in the stores but haven't tried it yet

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    1. where's Dottie? I haven't seen her in a while?

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    2. No, I'll have to look for quinoa pasta when we are in Florida. T.hat's for the heads up on it.

      Dottie has a problem posting, maybe she will try again. I miss her also

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  3. I'm here . Just busy doing a tag a thon for one of my Yuku groups I'm in. Yes I was having trouble posting but it seems to be working for me today. I'm pleased to know I was missed Cyndy. Thank you for caring. Linda I love casseroles and now that I'm using dreamfield pasta , I can eat this. I also love tuna. I will try this. xxxx

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    1. I was having a hard time too Dottie and YES you were missed! I hit the preview first then the refresh button if it doesn't post and then it lets me. I copy what I've typed so I can paste it back on. for some reason I can post easily from my phone, but not from my computer. best not say anything more or my phone will start giving me fits. glad you're back!

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  4. Dottie- you KNOW you are special to ALL of us!

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  5. Thanks for sharing with us at The Southern Special

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  6. Thank you Linda .Its the same with me . Your all special to me too.

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  7. Cyndy nothing I tried worked for me this time. I always do what you do too. I think after Have worked on things for Linda it fixed my problem too. ; }

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    1. well, I'm glad it's fixed and that you're back!

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  8. Hey there Dottie.....I have trouble posting also, so I do the same thing that Cyndy does. I copy my post. I noticed that when I go to post the copy post, I get the first set of numbers real quick, then the second one comes on. Must be something to do with the numbers we have to put on.

    Linda, this sounds great. I am not a big fan of hot tuna, but will pass this on to some of my friends who are big tuna noodle lovers. I bet you could replace the tuna with chicken, so maybe this would be a plan for me.

    Had a hectic day, so just getting in here now. Almost my beddy time, so goodnight to all.

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  9. Fine looking casserole, Linda! Wouldn't fly here as my fuss pot doesn't care for casseroles nor tuna! You'd think he was a little prince born with a silver spoon in his mouth! Believe me, that wasn't so! :-)

    I occasionally have problems posting. Usually if I backspace a typo then I can't continue to write unless I go to Preview and then Edit. That usually works for me and helps keep the frustration down now that I know how to do it.

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    1. You are so kind Angela! Not one of my best photos but Gabe did like it.

      Thanks for stopping by.

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  10. Thanks for the pin Kim! See you tonight :-)

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  11. Your tuna tetrazzini sounds de-lish! Thanks for sharing with us at the Teach Me Tuesday Linky Party!

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  12. Thanks for sharing! I've pinned your recipe to the Creative K Kids Tasty Tuesday board. We hope you'll join us again tomorrow!

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  13. Your Tuna Tetrazzini looks awesome! This is a fantastic recipe and thanks so much for sharing it with us. Hope to see you again real soon at Full Plate Thursday!
    Miz Helen

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