Studenty tuna pasta

Another busy week with very little time spent in the kitchen. Travelling with work at the beginning of the week, being cooked for on Wednesday and eating out with a friend last night has meant that there has been something of a dearth of food coming out of the Food, Glorious Food kitchen.

Last week was a different matter, however. With snowy conditions keeping me very much indoors, I spent lots of time pottering at home. As it was even too icy to consider venturing out to the shops, I was pretty much reliant on the contents of my cupboards. Good job that they were reasonably well stocked really.

Making the most of dry goods and canned foods took me back to being a student. In those days (not so long ago, I'll have you know), I was pretty content provided I had tinned tuna and tomatoes in the cupboard, fish fingers in the freezer and bread in the bread bin. Actually, don't tell anyone, but I'm still rather fond of a fish finger sandwich.

One of my staple suppers at university was this tuna pasta dish - I pretty much always had the ingredients to hand, it is very cheap and pretty tasty. There are better pasta dishes in this world sure. But when you have two feet of snow outside and you are desperate for food, this pretty much hits the spot.

I'm not going to give a full recipe. The point of this dish is that you make it with whatever you happen to have in the house. I've done it with sardines before now. And (again, please don't tell anyone), I've been known to grate over a handful of Cheddar in place of Parmesan.

Sweat an onion, along with some garlic and any other hard veg you might happen to have lying around (I happened to have a rogue courgette).

Add a tin of chopped tomatoes and a tin of tuna and give a good stir. Add a pinch of dried herbs, a small pinch of chilli flakes and a generous pinch of sugar. Stir. Pour over a little vegetable stock and leave to simmer for around 20 minutes, topping up with stock if it reduces too far. Taste and adjust seasoning.

Meanwhile, cook pasta according to pack instructions. Drain and stir into the hot sauce. Serve with some grated Parmesan (if that tickles your fancy) and chopped fresh herbs if you have them (I had a few chives).