This creamy tuna pasta recipe is easy, fast and absolutely delicious, it makes a great healthy-ish weeknight dinner!
I hope you still have some canned tuna and pasta left from your 2020 hoarding period because you’ll want to make this easy pasta with tuna for dinner every single week! The sauce is pretty uncomplicated and this is an excellent one-pan meal to make with whatever you have in your kitchen. So easy to clean up too!
This is my version of pasta with canned tuna and I first made it after all the hype was actually over. It happened on a very busy day when all I had in “my office” aka the apartment I used to live in, but now I only work at and looks like dirty on steroids, were some chickpeas and tuna cans, quick cooking pasta and a bunch of older citizen vegetables.
Oh, and some Philadelphia cream cheese that I had opened weeks ago to make cream cheese carrot cake muffins. Surprising to nobody that cream cheese was still good. The mold did not want to go near those preservatives. Talk about wanting to be immortal, Philadelphia cream cheese…
So I basically grabbed all I had in the fridge and made myself some healthy-ish creamy tuna pasta for lunch. Surprisingly, I held myself back from putting in my usual 4 cloves of garlic. Those 4 cloves had become a go-to in 2020. And it was a good decision. How about we make some more vision boards and decade reviews? I mean, you can’t help but look at all that December 2019 content and laugh and cry at the same time.
This pasta dish makes me wanna cry too. It’s gone. And it was so delicious, like amazing. I would honestly make it every day, but then I’ll have mercury poisoning and insulin resistance. And sadly these two don’t cancel each other out. Therefore I decided I’ll just eat the memory of this pasta 6 days a week and the real thing on day 7.
Creamy Tuna Pasta Main Ingredients
Tuna. You can use any type of pre-cooked tuna you like – smoked or canned will both work for this creamy pasta recipe.
Vegetables. Here we go for whatever we have in the fridge and would go well with this pasta. Leafy greens, peppers, cruciferous and non-starchy vegetables are great for this pasta. I used kale, garlic and cauliflower.
Pesto, tomato paste and cream cheese. These make the most delicious creamy sauce for this pasta.
Pasta. I used quick-cooking macaroni, however, any type of pasta will do. Don’t forget to pre-cook your pasta if it doesn’t cook in 4-5 minutes.
How To Make creamy Tuna Pasta
One of the most amazing things about this creamy tuna pasta recipe is how easily it comes together. Here’s what you need to do.
Wash and chop all the vegetables that you want to use in the recipe.
Saute the vegetables in a nonstick pan with some olive oil, salt and minced garlic and cover with a lid, cooking for 5-6 minutes.
In the meantime, mix your canned tuna with lemon juice and a little bit of chili powder (if desired).
Add quick-cooking pasta to the pan and 1 cup of water. I used macaroni and they cook in around 3-4 minutes. If you’re using other types of pasta – cook your pasta in a different pot before adding it to the pan. Make sure the pasta still needs 2-3 minutes more to cook through, so that it doesn’t get mushy.
Stir in the tomato paste and pesto.
Add another clove of garlic and the tuna.
Stir in the cream cheese, add some black pepper and water if needed. Cover with a lid and cook for around 2-3 more minutes.
Stir in some fresh basil and serve the tuna pasta immediately.
Easy Options
This easy creamy pasta is very versatile in its way of preparation and you can add or omit anything you want.
Don’t like kale? Leave it out or use spinach or arugula instead. You can use any brand of pesto or cream cheese you want. You can use whichever type of pasta you wish, as long as you follow the cooking instructions correctly.
More Easy Pasta Recipes
I hope you enjoy this “clean your fridge AND pantry” quick tuna pasta recipe! If you need more ideas for easy pasta dishes, check out these recipes:
- Creamy Tomato Basil Tortellini
- 20-Minute Creamy Salmon Tortellini
- 12-Minute Spicy Feta Pasta
- 10-Minute Healthy Chicken Pasta
20-Minute Creamy Tuna Pasta
Yield: 2
Prep Time: 5 minutes
Cook Time: 15 minutes
Total Time: 20 minutes
This easy creamy tuna pasta is the perfect cheap weeknight dinner idea, you'll want to eat it every day! You can make the recipe using non-perishable foods like canned tuna as well as leftovers in your fridge.
Ingredients
- 1 can tuna, drained
- ½ lemon, juice of
- ½ tsp chili powder (optional)
- 1 cup macaroni
- 2 garlic cloves, minced
- 1 cup kale, chopped
- 1 cup cauliflower, chopped
- 2 tbsp chopped basil
- 2 tbsp cream cheese
- 1 tbsp tomato paste
- 2 tbsp pesto
- 1 tbsp olive oil
- Salt
- Black pepper
Instructions
- Chop the ingredients. In a nonstick pan saute the kale and cauliflower with olive oil and 1 clove of garlic and salt for 5-6 minutes, cover with a lid.
- In the meantime mix the tuna with the lemon juice and a little bit of chili powder (if desired)
- Add the pasta to the pan and about 1 cup of water.
- Stir in the tomato paste, pesto, garlic and the tuna.
- Stir in the cream cheese and add water if needed. Crush some black pepper and cover with a lid for 3 minutes (I used quick cooking macaroni).
- Stir in the basil and let cook for another minute.
- Take off heat and serve immediately.
Notes
You can use any vegetables you have at home to make this pasta. For example, spinach, broccoli, asparagus, arugula - they would all work for this recipe.
Nutrition Information
Yield 2 Serving Size 1
Amount Per Serving Calories 444Total Fat 23gSaturated Fat 6gTrans Fat 0gUnsaturated Fat 15gCholesterol 53mgSodium 788mgCarbohydrates 31gFiber 5gSugar 4gProtein 30g
