Pasta al tonno is a really delicious and big on flavor Italian pasta that you can find all over Italy. It is made up of tuna and sun dried tomatoes and large shaped pasta for a nice toothsome bite. This Italian pasta with tuna recipe uses only a few ingredients but it is so amazing and the perfect easy pasta recipe anytime of year.
About this pasta al tonno recipe
This Italian pasta with tuna was something that I ate on repeat when I recently traveled through Italy. From restaurants in Florence to Venice, this is a classic Italian recipe.
This version which combines tuna and sun dried tomatoes is my favorite version of the recipe that I tried during my trip and the flavors are just unbelievably amazing.
If you are in Italy, do not pass up the opportunity to try this dish. It is made slightly different depending on where you are in the country. This version of pasta al tonno was the one I loved most from Venice.
You can serve this pasta al tonno as is or with a side of garlic ciabatta bread and maybe some Italian rice pudding or Italian brownie cake for dessert.
Ingredients needed
There are just a few ingredients needed for this easy Italian pasta with tuna. Make sure to use the best quality that you can find because all the flavors will stand out!
- Tuna steak- The best and freshest you can find!
- Sun dried tomatoes- Try to find the ones packed in olive oil because that flavored oil will be added to the tuna and pasta at the end!
- Garlic- Fresh garlic here- not the powdered stuff.
- White wine- Any good dry white wine will do. Just make sure you would drink it (never use anything called cooking wine!)
- Olive oil.
- Kosher salt.
- Large shaped pasta- This is important because a very large shaped pasta really adds a nice toothsome bite this recipe. You will need to look at specialty pasta section of the store. Here I uses a pasta shape called calamarata (shaped like calamari rings). This was the closest large shaped pasta I could find. The one I had at the restaurant was called pacherri. If you cannot find these pasta shapes, a large rigatoni pasta will work.
How to make pasta al tonno
Pasta al tonno is really easy to make and anyone at any skill level can pull off making this delicious pasta. Here are the steps:
- Cook the tuna in olive oil until it is nice and browned. This tuna is not served rare but cooked all the way through.
- Now remove the tuna from the pan and saute garlic and sun dried tomatoes in the olive oil. Add the wine and reduce down.
- Once the wine is reduced down by half, you can add the tuna back into the pan and gently toss into the mixture.
- Turn off heat and place a lid on it while you cook the pasta.
- Once the pasta is cooked to al dente, reserve one cup of pasta water and drain.
- Now in the pan that the tuna and sun dried tomatoes are in, add some of the sun dried tomato oil from the jar, the pasta, a little pasta water and toss gently.
I love adding fresh chopped Italian parsley to all of my Italian pasta dishes and especially to this Italian pasta with tuna. It adds a pop of color and a light flavor. This is totally optional.
Variations
There are not many things to change in this recipe because there are so few ingredients. Here are a couple of variation ideas in case you need some help.
- You can use regular tomatoes instead of sun dried tomatoes. The sun dried tomatoes and tuna combination is so good because the sun dried tomatoes add a sweetness to the recipe. I have tried this with regular tomatoes that I quartered and it was still really good. Let's just say the sun dried tomato version is the ultimate and regular tomatoes are delicious 🙂
- If you are on a limited budget or don't have fresh tuna steaks, you could use canned tuna in place of it. You would just skip the step of cooking the tuna and add it in at the end when you add the pasta.
Pairing Ideas
If you are looking for ideas of what to serve with Italian tuna pasta, here are some ideas:
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Pasta al Tonno (Italian pasta with tuna)
Ingredients
- 2 tuna steaks about ¾ inches thick cut into 1 inch cubes
- 1 lb large shaped pasta like pacheri or rigatoni
- 1 cup Sun dried tomatoes in oil coarse chopped. Do not throw out the oil from the jar. Reserve for the end of the recipe.
- ¼ cup Dry white wine
- ¼ cup Olive oil
- 4 Cloves Garlic minced
Instructions
- Bring a large pot of water to a boil for the pasta.
- While you are waiting for the pasta water to boil, add olive to a large saute pan over medium heat.¼ cup Olive oil
- Add the tuna and cook for about 4 minutes per side.2 tuna steaks
- Remove tuna from the pan on to a plate and set aside.
- In the same pan you cooked the tuna, add garlic and sun dried tomatoes (save the oil in the jar that the tomatoes sat in) and cook for 2 minutes.1 cup Sun dried tomatoes in oil, 4 Cloves Garlic
- Add the wine and reduce by half.¼ cup Dry white wine
- Add the tuna back into the pan along with a pinch of salt and toss gently.
- Place lid on pan and turn off heat.
- Once the pasta water is boiling, add pasta and cook until al dente.1 lb large shaped pasta
- When pasta is cooked, reserve one cup of pasta water and drain the pasta.
- Add the oil from the jar of sun dried tomatoes to the pan with tuna along with half of the pasta water and cooked pasta.
- Toss gently for one minute to allow the pasta to pick up the flavors from the sauce.
- Serve immediately and enjoy!
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