We had several tuna sauces, but this was our absolute favorite. We adapted it from a recipe we found many years ago in an Italian cookbook. The biggest change we made was adding the olives. It is a cold sauce, used at room temperature, and is a nice change of pace.


Ingredients

2 cans (6 oz. each) tuna

3-4 Tbs finely minced fresh garlic

4 Tbs chopped parsley (preferably fresh)

2 eggs, lightly beaten

6 Tbs butter or margarine, softened

1 cup (8 oz.) heavy cream

3-4 Tbs milk

Freshly ground black pepper

1 cup grated cheese (parmesan, romano, or mixture)

½ cup roughly chopped green olives

1 16 oz. package of your favorite pasta


Preparation

Make sure the eggs are room temperature. In a cup or glass, whisk them or beat them with a fork and set aside.

Put the (drained) tuna into a large bowl, and add the butter or margarine. Mash everything together. Add the eggs, parsley, garlic and several grindings of fresh black pepper. Blend ingredients thoroughly. Add the cream and milk and mix well. Then, add the grated cheese. Finally, add the olives. When all ingredients are well-blended, cover bowl with aluminum foil or plastic wrap and let stand for 30 minutes.

While the sauce is "resting", prepare the pasta of your choice.

Serves 4


Notes to the Chef

This is definitely a tuna sauce for garlic lovers!

Though this is meant to be a cold sauce, it can be gently warmed if you desire. I recommend only warming individual servings in a small saucepan.

Make sure you are using pitted olives. Even cocktail olives (with pimentos) can be used. If you don't care for green olives, substitute black ones. If you don't care for olives at all, they can be omitted entirely. (The original recipe did not use olives, but did use salt. We found the olives gave us all the saltiness we needed,)

Try, if possible, to use fresh parsley. The little bit of extra effort involved in washing and chopping the leaves is quite worth it. Of course, in a pinch, dried parsley can be used.

Try to use fresh garlic, as well. However, if none is available, substitute garlic powder. Prepared, minced garlic from a jar may also be used.

[Edit: Jarred garlic must never, under any circumstances be used! Ever!! There may be a very noticable tartness (from the citric acid used to preserve the garlic), and you will be stuffed into a 55 gallon drum and immediately suspended from the GangsterBB!]

For a thinner sauce, increase the cream. Add small amounts until the sauce is the desired consistency. If you do this, you may also choose to omit the milk.

The original recipe called for light tuna in olive oil. Since this can get a bit pricey (and we preferred white tuna), we did a little experimenting. We found hardly any difference in the final result when other types of tuna were used instead. If anything, the sauce wasn't quite as "heavy" or as salty. But, truthfully, we couldn't notice any substantial difference. (Of course, you can use any tuna you like - white or light, in oil or water.)

As far as the pasta, the sauce goes well with just about anything.

Signor V.