Would you believe this creamy Tuna Noodle Casserole has its own Wikipedia page?
The first year I was married, I learned to make a popular tuna-noodle casserole with help from a can of mushroom soup. The meal-in-one was cheap, quick, adaptable and, best of all, required no cooking skills. Yes, Chicken of the Sea got me through many a day as a new housewife, finishing up my last year in college.
Time and Tuna March On
As my kitchen file of scribbled 3×5 recipe cards grew, I became less dependent on canned items. I explored new flavors and fresh ingredients. Still the old standby remained part of my culinary arsenal, especially handy to take to sick or mourning neighbors.
I thought about the heart warming dish this week after reading a piece by David Lebovitz. In his healthy makeover of the fish-pasta-soup combo, he chucks the pasta for zucchini sticks. But I wasn’t quite ready to leave out the noodles.
I scanned the Internet until I found a recipe that was close to my memories: Old School Tuna and Noodle Casserole with Potato Chips and Peas. It looked good, but in the end, I went with Ree Drummond’s recipe (aka the Pioneer Woman), who jettisoned the clumpy canned soup, mayo, peas, cheese, and potato chips. The recipe was especially appealing because I had all her ingredients on hand—though my mushrooms were a bit scruffy.
I cooked the noodles while sauteing the vegetables.
Then I sprinkled flour over the soffritto of onions, garlic, carrots and mushrooms. (Carrots were my addition for a bit more color and sweetness.)
Next came the addition of milk and sherry wine to form a creamy sauce. Lastly, I folded in the tuna chunks and cooked noodles. The casserole topped with buttered Panko crumbs went into the oven for a half hour.
Fancify the Recipe
Many have attempted to fru-fru the old recipes with upscale ingredients: dried porcini mushrooms, Mozzarella, and thyme, as did USA Today‘s Ellen Brown. She did a side-by-side taste test of the original vs. her upscale, no-soup version and found the new recipe much preferred by taste testers. You might call this gussied up version Company Tuna Mornay.
I think the zucchini version has possibilities, too. I intend to give it a go. Perhaps using my spiralizer and cutting the zucchini into noodles, so the casserole looks like it has pasta, when it really contains a green vegetable. I could call it a Tuna-Zoodle Casserole. Or, perhaps, politicize the dish and call it “Fake Noodle Casserole.”
Comfort in a 9×13″ dish! (Though, I halved the recipe and baked it in an 8″ square dish, it was still comforting.) The dish can also be made ahead of time, placed in the fridge, and cooked later in the day or frozen for future use.
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