How often do you stray from tradition when it comes to recipes? Would you say you’re a rule follower or a riffer?
Cooking is all about clocking up time in the kitchen. Just as a pilot will chart well-mapped courses as they’re learning to spread their wings, following tried and true recipes to the letter is a safe and effective way to build up confidence before you spread yours.
But if you’re a long-time follower who’s ready to take to the sky, the best place to start is somewhere familiar, then whack on a twist, because even the recipes you thought were canonical often started with a riff.
Take tuna mornay, for example.
If you grew up in Australia, you’ll probably be surprised to learn that tuna mornay is only a “thing” for us – and only for the last80-odd years. For the French, sauce mornay – bechamel with grated cheese – is usually reserved for slathering over seafood such as lobster. In Italy, birthplace of pasta, seafood and cheese are an unholy union. It’s the anglophones who seem to be cool with pairing creamy sauce and canned fish. Tuna pasta bakes and casseroles, which are tuna mornay by a less fancy-schmancy name, are common in North America and the UK.
One advantage of being down under is we’re far enough away from the European culinary cannon to play a little faster and looser with the classics. Of both Cucina Australiana – or elsewhere.
So why not riff on a riff? Bring the best bits of a mornay – creamy, comforting, fuss-free – then eliminate the margin of gluggy error by replacing the bechamel with a crème fraiche, add zip and zest with my very versatile PGAL (a paste of parsley, garlic, anchovy and lemon that you’re going to want to spread and stir through everything) and freshen it further by incorporating the accoutrement from another traditional tuna dish: theniçoise.
Usually a niçoise is bulked out with spuds; instead the crunchy top here is none other than crushed-up potato crisps! I got the inspiration for this from a reader called Sue, who emailed to ask if I’d tried it. Dear reader, once you’ve triedthis,it’s pretty hard to go back to plain old panko.
Serves4-6
1 can(425g) tuna in olive oil, drained, reserving the oil50g black olives, pitted and roughly chopped1 tbsp capers, rinsed and drained (I used lilliput in salt, but any will do)80g gruyere, grated200ml crème fraiche500g dried short pasta(shells always work well here)200g green beans, topped and chopped to pea size
For the PGAL(parsley, garlic, anchovy and lemon) paste1 bunch flat-leaf parsley, washed and stems trimmed3 cloves garlic, peeled3-4 good-quality anchovies, including the oil1 lemon, zest and juiceReserved tuna oil¼ cup extra-virgin olive oil¼ tsp freshly ground black pepper
For the chippie crumb100g packet potato chips/crisps of your choice50g butter, room temp50g gruyere, grated
Bring a large pot of well-salted water to the boil and preheat the oven to 160C fan (180C conventional).
To make the PGAL paste, pop all of the ingredients into a food processor and blitz to a smooth paste. Leave in the food processor until needed.
In a medium-sized bowl, combine the tuna, olives, capers, grated cheese, crème fraiche and mix to combine, breaking up the tuna into chunks. Check for seasoning and adjust if needed.
To make the crumb topping, pop chippies (crisps), butter and cheese into another bowl and squish together with your fingers to break up the chips, rubbing in the butter and cheese to form a crumb texture.
Once the pasta water is at the boil, add the pasta to the pot, stir about for the first minute or so to keep it from clumping, then cook for one minute less than the packet’s instructions. Before draining the pasta, pop your green beans in the bottom of a colander. Drain the pasta over the beans (this will give them a swift blanch to take the squeaky edge off) and toss both pasta and beans back in the pot, along with all of the tuna ingredients and PGAL paste. Stir everything together well and check for seasoning.
Pour into a baking dish and top with the chippie crumb. Place in the oven for 10 minutes until golden and bubbly.
The dish will be super-hot, so take care when getting it out of the oven. Serve immediately with a simple salad on the side.