15-minute canned tuna pasta

Tuna pasta is what you cook when the fridge is a lemon and the cupboard is the rest. No cream. The pasta water and olive oil make a sauce; the lemon keeps it from tasting like a lunchbox.

Ingredients

• 8 oz pasta
• 2 cans tuna
• 1 lemon
• 3 cloves garlic
• 3 tbsp olive oil
• 1/2 bunch parsley
• Salt

Chili flakes if you keep them. Capers if the jar is already open. Neither is required for a match.

Method

1. Boil the pasta in salted water until just shy of done. Save a cup of the water.
2. Warm the olive oil in a skillet over medium heat. Slice the garlic and cook until pale gold, about 1 minute.
3. Take the pan off the heat. Flake in the tuna with its oil if it is packed that way. Zest and juice the lemon.
4. Toss in the pasta and a splash of pasta water until it looks sauced. Chop the parsley over the top.

Why it works in PantryZero

Canned tuna, pasta, oil, and garlic are pantry staples. Log them once. Lemon and parsley are the usual grocery-list gap, and you can skip the parsley.