A tuna caper — reach out to the world to complete your pasta dish

22 Oct 2024

Sneak a crafty ingredient from another cuisine into your pasta sauce to give it a little something nobody will suspect, but may be scratching their heads about.

The world of food has opened up, bringing us all sorts of opportunities to be inventive and use ingredients creatively. While we do honour traditional national cuisines and their ingredients and methods, we can feel free to reach out to another cuisine to add a little something to a dish it might not necessarily belong in.

If there’s acid in a dish, it needs a little sweetness to balance or “correct” it. That’s why we add a teaspoon of sugar to a hot tomato sauce, to cut that acidic bite that just doesn’t taste quite right. Then you stir in a bit of sugar and, bingo, there it is. Balance is achieved.

But does it have to be regular old granulated sugar? How about muscovado, and the darker and more mysterious the better? That’s Mauritian (or Filipino or Thai or from the Caribbean). Finely grate some palm sugar to do the job, or add a spoonful of honey or maple syrup.

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This isn’t “fusion” so much as borrowing — popping around to the neighbours to ask for a cup of sugar and they turn out to be Chinese so they lend you their jar of sweet soy sauce insead. And that is what I sweetened a pasta sauce with the other day. Sweet soy sauce. Just a hint; just enough to offset that bitter acid bite and straighten out the flavour profile. I had a taste and I could not detect soy on the palate, only an interesting underbelly of sweetness. And tomato and soy belong together in certain dishes anyway. Bear in mind that it was only a hint.

Here’s another trick: when using something canned such as tuna in a pasta sauce (yes, this sauce calls for a can of shredded tuna, not fresh), use the brine as well, or in this instance the salted water. The salted water in the can has been infused with the tuna flesh, so by using it you are adding that essence back to the sauce you’re cooking; it can only intensify the flavour, and as it reduces down the flavour profile can only benefit.

The herb I used was thyme, which suits tuna well. As for the pasta, I chose farfalle, which is a favourite. It’s a good choice for capturing bits and pieces in the sauce, and the little butterfly shapes look pretty too. Never a bad thing.

Tony’s tuna and caper sauce for farfalle

(Serves 4)

Ingredients

A splash of olive oil

1 medium onion, finely chopped

2 garlic cloves, chopped

A glass of white wine

1 x 400g can chopped tomatoes

2 Tbsp tomato purée

A drop of sweet soy sauce to offset the tomato acid

1 can of shredded tuna in salted water, including the water

1 heaped Tbsp capers

Salt and black pepper to taste

Fresh thyme leaves

1 cup cream

250g farfalle, boiled until al dente and drained

1 ladle pasta water

1 cup finely grated Parmesan to stir into sauce

More Parmesan to grate when serving

Thyme for garnish

Method

Sauté the onion in oil, add the garlic and deglaze with white wine.

Add the chopped tomatoes and tomato purée and simmer for 5 minutes for the flavours to concentrate. Add a dash of sweet soy sauce, stir and taste. Add the tuna and capers and season with salt and black pepper to taste.

Add the thyme and stir in the cream. Simmer for the cream to amalgamate and for the sauce to thicken and enrich. Stir in a cup of grated Parmesan. If needed, add a ladle of pasta water and let that simmer through for a few minutes.

Meanwhile, cook the pasta and drain. Toss the pasta through the sauce and serve with grated Parmesan and picked thyme leaves. DM

Tony Jackman is twice winner of the Galliova Food Writer of the Year award, in 2021 and 2023

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This dish is photographed on a plate by Mervyn Gers Ceramics.

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South Africa

Tony’s tuna and caper sauce for farfalle

Ingredients

Method