One-pan tuna noodle casserole (that actually tastes like something)

this casserole recipe is sponsored by Squarespace it's a retro mid-century mom classic for sure but a classic for a reason if you need a whole lot of hearty food that you don't have to fuss over you can't go wrong with a tuna noodle casserole and honestly you could skip the tuna this particular recipe is distantly descended from a Martha Stewart recipe my wife was trying one day and we were like wait this is not gonna taste like anything so we started jazzing it up and I'm doing it as a one pan meal a big stove safe baking dish or any big oven safe pan a whole stick of butter 113 grams or you could use like half a cup of olive oil 120 mils I'm just melting that over moderate heat maybe give it a little help so that the melted part doesn't burn before the rest is liquefied now I'll whisk in half a cup of all-purpose flour 60 grams to make a roux might seem like too much flour at first but a rule loosens up as it Cooks I don't know why whisk it smooth and then keep whisking as it cooks for a couple of minutes just to get get the raw flour taste out and maybe develop a few little nutty flavor notes I see it just starting to turn brown it smells cooked that's enough time to start whisking in a whole quart of milk which is just over a liter a little bit at a time especially early on when we're whisking out the lumps you could use any non-dairy milk you could use some Veggie stock plain water it'd be fine yes I'm showing you this entire assembly in one shot so you can see how dead simple this recipe is if you were to dump the liquid in all at once you would lose the viscosity that you need to whisk the lumps out the lumps would just Bob around in a pool of milk once you've got the lumps out you can pour in a lot more aggressively the wheat starch will gelatinize and thicken as that comes up to a simmer and we will have bechamel sauce now green beans you always want to snip off the stem end the stem is totally unchewable but I leave the flower end that doesn't bother me I'm going to grab a handful of green beans at a time hold on let me stir the sauce it's so thick the bottom layer can burn let's turn the heat all the way down we just need a bare simmer anyway green beans in parallel alignment and I will cut them into chunks at an extreme angle makes them look a little prettier I'm doing a whole pound of green beans 454 grams some classic casseroles are based on green beans instead of noodles I'm basically doing half noodles half green beans which should result in a nutritionally superior product for me those need a little head start to a little pre-cooking so I'll stir them in and let them simmer that sauce looks way too thick now but tons of water is going to come out of the vegetables I've got this mostly sweet red pepper from the garden I'll cut that in half take the seeds out and slice it into strips you could use a regular bell pepper instead in those go and you could use a second bell pepper as Martha does but I'm using a handful of red chilies I think these are Fresnos which are not very hot but if you want to control the heat somewhat more one thing you can do is slice them into rounds pick them up and then just push out the seeds and the ribs where most of the heat is you'll only have to do the that with the slices from up near the stem the other rounds will be empty gather those up and then you can kind of shake out some more seeds throw those in stir in the peppers so they can get a little head start on softening I'll get rid of all those seeds now I've got a couple of Bunches of green onions here but any form of onion will work as long as you slice it thin I'll peel off any tattered or slimy outer layers some of these are noticeably Sandy on the inside that'll happen they grew up through dirt yet another reason to peel off those outer layers I'll give those one more rinse in the sink okay cut the roots off and discard then slice thin all the way up through the whites and into the greens I'll just stop when I get to the very top where they're super dry and stringy all those go in stir stir make sure the sauce at the bottom isn't burning here's a great trick that I do owe to Martha canned marinated artichokes usually they're baby artichokes which is why you can eat the whole thing not just the heart these bring a ton of flavor to a casserole if you can get the lid off I'm embarrassing myself oh you know our friends at the national Center for home food preservation gave me one of these thingies for gripping Lids nice Martha says to drain the marinade off I see no reason to not just dump it all in there now it's tuna time I've got four of these standard five ounce cans 140 grams each and this is one of the brands that's generally recommended by the folks at seafoodwatch.org they also recommend looking for cans that say pole and lime cot there's lots of terrible sustainability issues associated with tuna and seafood watch has a great guide for canned tuna it's linked in the description I'll dump all of these in again I see no reason to drain them we need liquid we need flavor put it all in if you don't eat fish maybe some jars of marinated mushrooms instead once the tuna is in you don't want to over stir because you could end up shredding the meat too fine I'll put in some seasonings before I stir again a ton of garlic powder makes a casserole really taste like something a little less onion powder a little dried thyme or other herb maybe some mustard powder grind in a lot of black pepper and then a big pinch of salt to start with we'll probably need more but the tuna is salty the artichokes are salty so it's good to be conservative give that an initial stirring and now it's time for 12 ounces 340 grams of dried egg noodles manischevitz is the best hashtag not an ad and lots of people pre-boil them but you can just dump them right in I'll stir them in we've got some excessively large chunks of tuna still but they will keep breaking apart as we stir here's the trick to making baked noodle dishes without pre-boiling get it so that the texture looks right except for the fact that the noodles are dry this is about the sauce texture that I want in the end get everything tossed in enough thick sauce and then top it off with enough wine or stock or plain water to just cover all of that will get absorbed by the noodles yes I'm doing a whole bottle of cheap Pinot Grigio you could use half Wine Half water if you want it less acidic you could use all water but with a big glug or two 2 of white balsamic vinegar to replicate the taste of wine without the alcohol just get enough watery liquid in there to barely cover I need a little more so a little water stir stir now I'll get a spoonful of that liquid and taste for seasoning tastes pretty good by itself but it's going to need more salt a lot more because all of the flavor is going to be diluted by the noodles and the other Bland bulk in there the sauce should taste too salty at this stage a little too salty push all those noodles down so they get cooked and lastly you can grate on any hard cheese if you want this is pecorino this will Brown nicely in the last phase of cooking and that's it cover tightly with foil to trap Steam and get all the noodles cooked Bake at 400 degrees Fahrenheit 200 Celsius until the noodles are soft and it seems like most of the water is absorbed it'll be 45 minutes an hour max then throw it back in uncovered to evaporate any remaining free water and to let the top get all brown and crunchy another other 20 minutes or so yeah it takes a long time to bake especially if you don't boil the noodles first but you can bake it the night before and just reheat it when you get home from work or you can kind of under bake it a little bit and then freeze it there's a reason everybody brings casseroles to people who are sick or they just had a baby or something casseroles tend to taste even better after they've been reheated a meal as simple and all inclusive as Squarespace the sponsor of 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now that the chilly weather has returned I'll be making more of you shortly

Channel: Adam Ragusea

Views: 469,169

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Id: o4mERYo9edo

Length: 8min 34sec (514 seconds)

Published: Thu Oct 20 2022