Filthy Gorgeous

I’ve never been a hugely inventive cook. I don’t enjoy throwing everything I have left in my fridge all-together - rather unlike my partner, evidenced in his recent creation of a dish that mixed both sauerkraut and lentils. He’ll play with any forceful flavours he can get his hands on, while I generally just stick to the flavour pairings I know and love. But I’ll always adopt someone’s recipe and make it my own, bringing it from gorgeously complex to downright cheap and easy. And I have no shame behind that either.

I’ve made potato salads where I’ve swapped boiled potatoes to canned ones, and I’ll stick frozen veg in a stir-fry any day. There should be no shame around long-life ingredients – on a low and solitary budget, it’s good to have staples that won’t go off as quickly as fresh will and it saves you lots of time during tired evenings. Can-filled cupboards certainly aren’t as eye-catching as the veggie cornucopia of a fridge, yet I can’t help but love it. Bring on the frozen spinach!

One of my favourite recipes is about as far away from aesthetically pleasing as you can get, a staple dish of mine that will always make others question my tastebuds. It’s a recipe I learnt from my mum; a recipe written in my notes app dating from before I even started University. It’s essentially a Spaghetti Bolognese, but it’s made with canned tuna instead of beef mince. I’ve never used a fresh tuna steak in it – I wouldn’t know the first thing about how!

Yet I’ve managed to alter it to all sorts of tastes and dietary requirements, swapping the tuna for courgette and removing the non-veggie ingredients. It’s easy, adaptable and filling, and can be batch made and saved in containers for future easy dinners - even mixed with rice, peas and broccoli to make a dish playfully known as Tuna Mice in my household. I’d recommend the Bolognese with a side salad, made of rocket, lambs lettuce and beetroot leaves, drizzled with balsamic vinegar.

Words By Emma Witham

Ingredients (Makes 3 servings):

400g chopped tomatoes – canned or fresh

3 portions spaghetti

1 large red onion

½ tbsp sugar

Pinch of salt

Pinch of ground black pepper

1 tbsp tomato puree

3 splashes Worcester sauce

15ml red wine – or more if you like it a bit more boozy

1 splash balsamic vinegar

1 vegetable stock cube

1 carrot

2 cloves of garlic

1-2 cans of tuna steak according to preference

Mixed herbs - preferably a mix of thyme, rosemary, sage, basil and oregano, fresh or readily prepared (supermarkets often do their own brand)

A couple splashes of olive oil