Jools' Favorite Saturday Afternoon Pasta

One of the reasons I'm fond of Jamie's recipes is that after one or two tries, you don't need them anymore.  A favorite of mine is his Chickpea, Leek and Potato soup, from The Naked Chef.  Coupla leeks, a few potatoes (I use Yukon Gold so I don't have to pre-boil or peel), a can of chickpeas, and a box of chicken stock.  Poof!  Instant soup!  And really good soup, at that.  I was hoping this would become one of those quick-from-the-pantry recipes, because the spaghetti with jarred sauce option can be really lame (and honestly, if that's the choice, we usually end up ordering pizza).   I halved the recipe, because I only had 1 jar of tuna, and a whole box of pasta for two people is way too much.  It was easy to adjust, and you could make more as well, if you needed.

Even though these recipes are fairly laid back, you still probably need to get things in order first -- I was attempting to chop onion, heat oil and read the book at the same time.  Next time I'll have all my ingredients ready.  Mise en place and all that jazz.  So I add the onion and a few dried chilies (my store didn't have fresh ones, and I figured as long as I had heat, it counted) to the oil.  Next item?  Cinnamon.  What?!?  Knowing that I would soon be adding tuna to this, I got a little scared.  Trust the Missus, I said.  Then I added my tuna which, despite being Fancy Jarred Sicilian Tuna from DiBruno's (upscale Italian market here in Philly; home of more stinky cheese than anyone needs, and where I had to find my tuna in olive oil because I went to the wrong store the first time), made the whole thing smell a little like wet dog.  Trust the Missus.  

I cooked it for as long as the rigatoni took to boil (about 11 minutes) and threw it all together.  I had my lemon zest and basil ready this time.  Need to figure out a way to squeeze lemons over a dish and not get pips in.  Dish up, add cheese (also strange for fish) and taste. 

Wow.  This is good.  Like, really good.  Any sense of wet dog has gone, and you really can't even tell it's tuna.  Salty, tomato-y, lemony and fresh, with a little spice.  This is one of those things you serve to people and try to get them to guess what it is and what's in it.  Everything blends together so well you can't quite figure it all out.  We likened it to Manhattan Tuna Casserole.  But in a good way.  It was great the next day, and you could probably eat it cold.  The half size recipe made two nice servings with a large one left over, and could probably be split into 4 if you were having a salad.  I will absolutely make this again.  Prego, be gone from my cabinet!