Spicy tuna ragú

This Spicy tuna ragù comes together extremely quickly. It’s perfect for a speedy midweek dinner and delicious enough to take centre stage at a dinner party. There’s practically no chopping involved- all you have to do is finely chop parsley, roughly chop garlic and that, my friends, is it! All the ragù ingredients go into the pan at the same time and 10 mins later you have a flavour-packed sauce that tastes like it's been simmering away for hours. 

150 twists of black pepper is not a typo, trust me on this, and trust me when I tell you to add a dash of curry powder as well. Scotch bonnet is optional but very much recommended if you’re into heat. Feel free to use another tinned fish if you like but please make sure it’s not in vinegar. If it’s brine or sunflower oil, drain that away before using and add extra olive oil to the pan.

Ingredients Serves 4

Ragù

2 x 160g tins tuna in olive oil (not in brine/vinegar!!)

3 tbsp olive oil

200g sweet, ripe cherry tomatoes 

70g tomato paste/puree

3 garlic cloves, roughly chopped

1 Scotch bonnet (optional, if you like heat)

150 twists black pepper 

10g parsley, finely chopped

½ tsp medium curry powder

¼ tsp chilli flakes

¼ tsp chipotle flakes

¼ tsp fine sea salt

Everything else

350g rigatoni (or another dried pasta)

60g parmesan, finely grated

80g double cream

Method

Cook pasta until al dente in salted boiling water (I use dry rigatoni which takes about 11 mins).

While the pasta is cooking, add all the ragù ingredients (including the olive oil from the tuna tins) to a large saucepan off the heat. Place on a medium heat and stir-fry for about 8 mins- squashing the tomatoes with the back of a spoon as they start to soften- until they completely break down into the sauce.

Add the cooked pasta to the ragù, along with 400ml pasta cooking water. Add the parmesan and double cream, toss well and once combined, remove from the heat. Check seasoning, you may want to add more salt if your pasta water wasn’t very salty.

Squeeze the Scotch bonnet into the sauce before removing it (or finely chop it up and stir into the pasta if you like heat).

Transfer to a platter, finish with olive oil, more parmesan and black pepper and serve.