Recipe: Julia Busuttil Nishimura’s Luxe Lunchtime Tuna Spaghetti

Julia Busuttil Nishimura wants to elevate your lunch. She says no to sad sandwiches and salads scoffed at your desk. Instead, the cookbook author behind Good Cooking, Every Day, A Year of Family Food and Ostro wants you to treat yourself to something special for your next midday meal.

Busuttil Nishimura has devised a luxe lunchtime pasta using a good quality marinated tuna. “A good lunchtime recipe is quick to make, filling – so it will sustain you for the afternoon – and something that’s a little bit interesting, something to look forward to,” she says.

Tuna is the hero of this pasta dish, says Busuttil Nishimura, and it’s complemented by the classic pairing of thinly sliced lemon. Chilli, capers and rocket stirred through at the end deliver a big burst of flavour.

Busuttil Nishimura finishes the dish with crunchy breadcrumbs, or pangrattato. Use good quality bread like sourdough if you have it on hand. “I take fresh breadcrumbs and fry them in a bit of olive oil in the pan until they’re really crispy. Scatter them over the top, which gives the pasta a really nice crunch,” she says.

The result is a satisfying and nutritious lunch that will help you avoid the three o’clock sugar craving that sees everyone (or is it just me?) reach for a chocolate bar or a coffee in an effort to perk up. “It’s a really light, oil-based pasta – nothing too heavy,” she says, which will ward off an afternoon slump in energy. “It’s a little different to your normal desk lunch.”

Spaghetti with tuna, pangrattato and lemon by Julia Busuttil Nishimura

Serves 4
Cooking time: 20 Minutes

Ingredients

400g spaghetti
3 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
5 garlic cloves, finely chopped
1 long red chilli, halved, deseeded and finely chopped, plus extra to serve
2 tbsp capers
Grated zest and juice of 1 lemon, plus extra to serve
200g tuna fillets in olive oil
Handful of flat leaf parsley, roughly chopped
sea salt and freshly ground pepper

Pangrattato
80ml extra virgin olive oil
1 cup fresh breadcrumbs
Sea salt

Method

For the pangrattato, warm the olive oil in a large pan over a medium–high heat. Add the breadcrumbs and season with salt. Fry for 4 to 5 minutes, stirring occasionally, until golden in colour. Transfer to a small bowl.

Cook the spaghetti in a large pot of generously salted boiling water until al dente. Reserve about one quarter of the pasta cooking water for the sauce.

While the pasta is cooking, prepare the sauce by warming the olive oil in a large deep pan over a low heat. Gently cook the garlic, chilli and capers until fragrant, for around 3 minutes. Increase the heat to medium–high and add the lemon juice and zest. Add the cooked spaghetti and the reserved cooking water to the pan and toss to coat. Gently stir through the tuna, being careful not to break up the fillets and sprinkle in the parsley. Season with salt and pepper.

Sprinkle the pasta with plenty of pangratatto and serve with extra chilli and lemon.

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