30-60 min4 servingscherry tomatoes

Penne with Fresh Tuna and Cherry Tomatoes

By Ivy Manning

4 servings

30-60 min

Easy

Penne with Fresh Tuna and Cherry Tomatoes

Recipe Details

Course: Main Dishes

Difficulty: Easy

Prep Time: 5 min

Cook Time: 30 min

Total Time: 30-60 min

Cooking Technique: Pressure Cook

Cuisine: Italian

Diet: Dairy Free

Yield: 4 servings

Ingredients

12 ounces penne pasta
2 cups cherry tomatoes
1 small sweet onion
1/3 cup oil-cured olives
3 tablespoons olive oil
4 cloves garlic
1/4 teaspoon red chile flakes
Salt and pepper
1 inches tuna steak
1/2 cup fresh basil leaves
1 1/2 teaspoons lemon zest
2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice

In this Southern Italian–inspired one-pot pasta, a thick tuna steak cooks to moist perfection at the same time as the penne, cherry tomatoes, and olives. When the cooking is done, break up the tuna into large flakes with a spoon and mix it into the pasta. The sauce will look thin at first glance, but it thickens into a beautiful, clingy sauce upon standing.

INSTRUCTIONS

Combine the pasta, cherry tomatoes, onion, olives, oil, garlic, red chile flakes, 1/2 teaspoon salt, and several grinds of black pepper in the pot. Add 2 3/4 cups water and stir to combine. Place the tuna on top of the pasta mixture but do not submerge it.
Lock on the lid, select the Pressure Cook function, and adjust to Low pressure for 6 minutes. Make sure the steam valve is in the “Sealing” position and that the “Keep Warm” button is off.
While the pasta is cooking, stack the basil leaves, roll them up tightly as you would a sleeping bag, and slice crosswise into thin ribbons.
When the cooking time is up, quick-release the pressure. Remove the lid. Add the basil, lemon zest, and lemon juice to the pot and stir, breaking up the fish into bite-size chunks. Season with salt and black pepper.
Let the pasta stand in the pot set in the appliance, uncovered, for 5 minutes to allow the sauce to thicken before serving.

Notes

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About the chef

Ivy Manning

Ivy Manning is a Portland, Oregon-based food and travel writer and author of 10 cookbooks including her most recent title, Tacos A to Z- A Delicious Guide To Inauthentic Tacos (West Margin Press, 2023). Her work regularly appears in Cooking Light, Clean Eating, Eating Well, Better Homes & Gardens, and The Kitchn.com. She is a regular contributor to lifestyle brands like Fitbit, My Fitness Pal and The Spruce Eats. After receiving a Bachelor of Arts in English from the University of Wisconsin-Madison, Manning attended Western Culinary Institute in Portland, Oregon, followed by an externship at the award-winning Paley’s Place restaurant, stints at some of Portland’s best restaurants, and stages in Barbaresco, Italy and Chiang Mai, Thailand. She held the position of Salud Cooking School director at Whole Foods Market in Portland for several years and currently teaches classes at Bob’s Red Mill. Manning lives in a sweet bungalow in Portland, Oregon with her vegetarian husband Gregor, and her rescued Whippets, Astor and Remy. When she’s not in the kitchen, she’s traveling the world to eat, working with the nonprofit Les Dames D’Escoffier Portland, hanging out in international food markets, or doing yoga with goats.

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