Pasta with Chunky Tuna Tomato Sauce and Green Leaf Salad

Tonight's Dinner was also the product of the empty refrigerator and my quest for protein. I ended up going food shopping on my way home because we needed capers for the sauce, and I'm glad I got them. It was at the grocery store that I found the green leaf lettuce, which I recently realized I really like because it's lettuce, but it actually tastes like lettuce. The Lemon Vinaigrette was due to the fact that I was using zest in the sauce and needed to do something with the juice. You can leave a zest-less lemon in the fridge, but it gets pretty unhappy pretty quickly. I added dill to Becca's vinaigrette recipe, because I'm a sucker for dill, no, I really just overuse it. I was a big fan of the Tomato Sauce and I'm looking forward to having the leftovers for lunch. Ruby, who is working on her food critique skills for your reading pleasure, says: Everything was delicious, the flavors blended really well.

Chunky Tuna Tomato Sauce

Olive Oil- a few turns of the pan
a pinch Dried Rosemary
3/4 cup chopped carrots
1/2 medium onion, chopped
2 cloves fresh garlic, minced
1 heaping TBSP capers, drained, rinsed and roughly chopped
zest of one lemon
1 can tuna
1/2 jar marinara sauce
parmesan for "garnish"
cooked pasta, I used rotini

In a small saucepan heat the oil and rosemary (rub it in your palm to bring out the flavor). Add the carrots, onion, and garlic and saute until soft. I actually added some water put the lid on the pan so the veggies would soften without burning. You can let the veggies brown a little bit once soft. Then add the sauce, the lemon zest, the capers and the tuna. Stir and simmer for 5-10 minutes for flavors to meld. Mix with cooked pasta and sprinkle generously with grated parmesan. I forgot to do this but adding some reserved pasta water would probably make the sauce stick and mix a little better.




Green Leaf Salad
Green Leaf Lettuce
Dried Cranberries
Dried Apricots, chopped
Becca's Lemon Vinaigrette + Dill

The dried fruit was really good with the lemon vinaigrette, I think it might even be good if you have the time to soak the fruit in the vinaigrette before putting it over the lettuce.