Crudaiola are a sort of cross between a pasta salad and a pastasciutta. Not being a fan of pasta salads: essentially piping hot pastaq stright off the pan garnished with a noncook sauce. I love crudaiola in summer, not only because in summer you can hit delicious tomateos full of flavor, but also because the cold (room temp, actually) sauce cools the pasta a bit without making it cold and clammy the way pasta salads seem to me. So, last night I made this.

For four people, I used eight pizzutelli tomatoes (slightly larger than cherry tomatoes, with less seeds and more flesh), seeded them and cubed them. I picked two garlic cloves, peeled and lightly crushed one so that it stayed in one piece, placed the tomatoes and the crushed garlic clove in a bowl, added one 150 grams can of tuna in oil, oil removed and the tuna broken into flakes. I soaked a small handful of capers and chopped them. Then I added a few basil leaves, which I shredded by hand. (I didn't add any salt, relying on the tuna and the capers for the saltyness.) I garnished the mixture with a little extravirgin olive oil and let it sit while I brought a pot of moderately salted water to the boil and cooked until al dente 360 grams of pasta. While the pasta was cooking and the sauce was resting, I cut the other garlic clove in two pieces and brushed each plate with the garlic, then discarded the clove. As soon as the pasta was al dente, I drained it and quickly discarded the crushed garlic clove from the bowl, then stirred the pasta with the sauce and served in the garlic-flavored plates.

This sounds excellent. Fellow moderator Chris recently turned me on to a similar dish and I LOVE it - so easy to make, so delicious, and you don't have to cook the sauce!

The recipe she gave me is very similar to this, but has lemon in it, tomatoes are an option as are olives, and it has parsley instead of basil. It also has parmesan cheese (don't freak out, Alice! ) The great thing is, you can be pretty flexible and still come out with a great tasting dish.

Here's the recipe on Epicurious. It's probably my favorite quick and easy dinner.

AND the leftovers are great the next day cold for lunch!

OK - guess what I'm having for dinner tonight! Thanks, Alice, for the post - and Chris/Shannon for the variant.

On a recent trip to COSTCO I picked up a pack of 8 cans of Italian oil packed tuna for a bargain price. It is delicioso, and will be perfect for this recipe.

I have used it a couple of times for a hot pasta that is a grown up tuna noodle dish - using Trader Joe's lemon pepper papardelle, and making the "sauce" with sauteed mushrooms, garlic, tuna, a little milk-thinned ricotta instead of cream, and a squeeze of lemon juice. The capers would be a nice addition.

Judy

I never thought to look at Costco for good tuna! This dish definitely calls for good olive-oil packed tuna. I think the lemon zest, garlic and parsley combination with the tuna is perfect. I tend to use more of these than the recipe calls for.

See you tomorrow, Judy!

quote:

Originally posted by Shannon:
This sounds excellent. Fellow moderator Chris recently turned me on to a similar dish and I LOVE it - so easy to make, so delicious, and you don't have to cook the sauce!

This is actually one of the infinite possibile variants of the "crudaiola" family. Essentially, in summer, when you don't feel like cooking too muchand you have great tomatoes and herbs, you do not need a cooked sauce. Just preprae a base (my favorite is diced tomatoes, garlic, EVO oil, basil and a pinch of salt) and stick in any ingredient that happens to be handy nd flavorful. I do not usually add more than a couple of ingredients, but you could add more or less anything: raw zucchini, raw bell peppers (yellow of green give the sauce a better color), fresh cheeses of whatever type you like, parmigiano, spices, canned fish, and so on.