TUNA PASTA BAKE

My favourite ever cookbook is Fay's Family Food by Fay Ripley. Whilst I have always owned several cook books, namely Jamie Oliver's, I rarely cooked from them and instead just admired the pictures and fantasised about the dishes (yes I know I am a weirdo)! However Fay's first cookbook has so many delicious recipes which aren't actually that complicated and it really encouraged me to start cooking. Before I bought this cook book, I could barely boil an egg. Fast forward 4 years and I now cook from scratch most nights. 

Here is one of the first recipes I ever cooked from Fay's Family Food - it is simple to make and takes around 45 minutes.

Ingredients for 3-4 adults (depending on your appetite):

260g penne or fusilli pasta
100g sweetcorn (you can use frozen)
75g spinach (you can use frozen)
3 big leeks, washed and roughly chopped
1 tbsp olive oil
240g good quality canned tuna
200g grated mature cheddar cheese
1/2 tsp ground nutmeg
freshly ground black pepper
200g tub half fat creme fraiche
100g grated Parmesan

Preheat the oven to 200C fan / 220C / gas mark 7.

Slice the leeks and fry in a splash of olive oil for about 10 minutes.

Cook the pasta in salted boiling water until al dente - ours took 7 minutes.

About 3 minutes before the pasta is ready add the spinach and sweetcorn (5 minutes if using frozen vegetables).

Drain the pasta, spinach and sweetcorn and then pour back into the saucepan.

Add the tuna and leeks.

Add 200g creme fraiche.

Add 200g grated cheese.

Sprinkle with half a teaspoon of nutmeg and season with black pepper.

Give it a good stir so it is all mixed together and then pour into an ovenproof dish.

Sprinkle the grated Parmesan over the top (I also added a little bit more grated cheese as well)!

Put into the oven for 20 minutes and then serve!

This was so easy to make and really delicious - so good I broke my golden rule and had seconds! It is a great one for kids as it contains lots of hidden vegetables and tuna is full of iron and potassium….to be honest it is good for adults too!! This could be made the morning before and then reheated in the oven for slightly longer (30 minutes) and it is freezable as long as you do not use frozen vegetables.

A perfectly simple family supper.