Pasta with tuna, lemon and Parmesan, the quick and tasty pasta beloved by off-campus students. We’ve made the Pasta with tuna and zucchini in white sauce, the Pasta with tuna, olives and capers and the Pasta with tuna and Sicilian-style eggplant and many other tuna pasta versions, but I had never shared this one with tuna and Parmesan scented with lemon!! Surely the combination of canned tuna and Parmesan may make you raise an eyebrow, but trust me: it’s delicious!! I wasn’t an off-campus student myself, but I had many colleagues who were, and this was their go-to dinner recipe and “last-minute pasta” that we loved. Tuna, olive oil, pepper and Parmesan, all complemented by a sprinkle of lemon zest, make a truly delightful sauce for a first course! Want to try it? Let’s go to the kitchen and I’ll tell you the recipe; I’m sure you’ll like it too! As always, before we start cooking, if you want to stay updated on all my recipes you can follow my Facebook page (here) and my Instagram profile (here).

Also take a look:

Difficulty: Very easy
Cost: Very inexpensive
Preparation time: 10 Minutes
Portions: 4
Cooking methods: Stovetop
Cuisine: Italian
Seasonality: All seasons

Ingredients for making pasta with tuna and Parmesan

14 oz pasta
7 oz tuna in oil (drained)
1 cup grated Parmesan (or Grana Padano)
to taste lemon zest (organic)
to taste black pepper
to taste salt
to taste extra virgin olive oil

Tools

Pot
Pan
Bowl

Preparation

For this recipe use only an organic lemon; as for the tuna you can also use tuna packed in water.

Put the water on to boil for the pasta and, while waiting for it to boil, gather the grated cheese, pepper, lemon zest and drained tuna in a bowl. Drizzle generously with olive oil and mix.
Drop the pasta into the lightly salted boiling water and cook. Just before it’s done, still very al dente, pour a ladle of hot pasta water over the seasoning and combine. Drain the pasta, transfer it to a pan, add the seasoning and toss over high heat, adding water as needed and breaking up the bits of tuna and cheese that may have clumped.
Finish with a dusting of pepper (pink peppercorns if you have them) and serve immediately.