Tuna and potato stew in tomato sauce

 

Embrace the cooler season and cook comfort food aplenty. The autumn is in full swing, and while October is not as colourful as its seasonal predecessor, it is definitely less bleak than November. There are still bursts of sunshine, and clear blue skies after the rain, and many trees are still sporting bright leaves.

As the nights draw in earlier and earlier with each day, and winter is slowly approaching, I find myself craving more soups, stews and hot chocolate, which are ideal for cosy autumn evenings. 

Unlike many organised cooks, I don't plan weekly meals, and quite often have only a vague idea of what I am going to cook for lunch or dinner. It depends on what I have in the pantry, fridge and also what I might be tempted with in the flash sales on Ocado, when I amend the order the day before the grocery delivery. Last week I got a couple of tuna steaks at half price, which I decided to turn into a stew.

I had a bottle of Mutti Passata from the latest Degustabox, which would be the tomato base for the sauce.

Tuna and potato stew in rich sauce (serves 3-4):

3tbsp olive oil

1 onion, finely chopped

2 carrots

1 clove of garlic

a handful of tomatoes

1 tsp paprika

1 bottle of Mutti passata (400g)

1tbsp sweet chilli sauce (Heinz)

3 medium potatoes, peeled and diced

2 tuna steaks (220g)

Fry finely chopped onion and carrots with 2tbsp of olive oil, stirring frequently for about 10 minutes. Add a chopped clove of garlic, a handful of baby tomatoes and paprika. As you can see from the photo below, I used a combination of red and green (unripe) tomatoes.

Cook for another couple of minutes.

Pour passata in a medium sized pan, add the chilli sauce, onion and carrot mix, and cubed potatoes, add water to cover all the vegetables, bring to boil, then lower the heat and cook until the potatoes are soft, for about 30+ minutes.

Cut the tuna into big cubes and add to the stew in the last five minutes of cooking.

Serve hot. Garnish with chopped spring onions, or olives.

Mutti Passata is an Italian product. Mutti is Italy's no.1 brand of tomatoes. It "has been processing tomatoes for over 100 years. Its products are made exclusively of Italian tomatoes, with scrupulous supervision of the entire production chain: from selection of the most suitable variieities to inspection in the field, up to harvesting and canning, which is done just hours after the tomatoes arrive at the plant". Ingredients include tomatoes and salt, and nothing else.

If you don't have Mutti Passata, any good quality passata or tinned tomatoes will work just fine in this recipe. For cheaper tinned tomatoes, you might need to add more spice, a pinch of sugar or a spoonful of maple syrup to add the extra depth to the sauce.