Mr. MarthaAndMe LOVES tuna noodle casserole. He asks for it for his birthday dinner every year. I never had tuna noodle casserole until I met him (my parents fooled around with all kinds of crazy food things, but never anything so traditional!). And I have to admit I’ve never been a big fan of it. Over the years, I’ve learned to make it so that I can choke it down. Usually I use 2 cans of tuna, one can of cream of mushroom soup, and egg noodles and I add in mushrooms, broccoli, peas, Worchestershire, Italian herbs, and lots and lots of cheese. Even so, I’ve never really cared for it.

In the September edition of Martha Stewart Everyday Food, Martha has a section on foods made using a bechamel sauce, one of which is tuna noodle casserole. I knew Mr. MarthaAndMe would be happy to find tuna noodle casserole on his plate for dinner, so I gave it a try. First I made the bechamel sauce, which is very easy – cook some onions (1/4 cup chopped) in 3 Tbsp butter, add flour (1/4 cup – I doubled this to make it thicker) to make a roux then stir in milk (4 cups) and let it thicken. It does take some time to make, but it’s not hard at all.

I cooked the green beans (10 oz – what a great idea – I never thought to add those!) and then cooked my whole wheat spirals (1/2 lb). I mixed the tuna (2 cans) with the noodles, beans and bechamel sauce and poured it into a casserole dish. Then I used some whole wheat bread (5 slices) to make breadcrumbs and mixed them with melted butter (2 Tbsp) and poured them on top. That was it! This was incredibly easy.

I baked it at 350 for about 45 minutes and it came out bubbly, warm and pretty. And here’s the newsflash. I actually liked it! All these years that I’ve been making this for him, it never occurred to me to substitute a real sauce for that nasty canned cream of mushroom soup. If only I’d known! This was simple, but very tasty. I loved having the beans in it. They gave it some substance and balanced out the creaminess of the sauce. The breadcrumbs on top are the perfect touch (in the past, I’ve used crumbled crackers or potato chips). This is really a terrific recipe.

Mr. MarthaAndMe LOVES tuna noodle casserole. He asks for it for his birthday dinner every year. I never had tuna noodle casserole until I met him (my parents fooled around with all kinds of crazy food things, but never anything so traditional!). And I have to admit I’ve never been a big fan of it. … Read more →

Mr. MarthaAndMe is a major fan of tuna noodle casserole, so I decided to give this a whirl from page 130 of January Living.

This is totally different from the way I make this dish. You food process onion, anchovies, capers, and artichoke hearts. Then you add in parmesan cheese, tuna water, oil and pepper. You mix this with your tuna (I had some tuna filets leftover that I used instead of canned tuna) and elbows. Put it in a dish and sprinkle breadcrumbs and a little oil on top and bake for about 40 min.

This was pretty simple to whip up. As for the taste, I did not like it at all, but I do not like anchovies.  It tasted very, very fishy in the way anchovies do and did not taste much like tuna at all. I also did not taste the artichokes. It smelled very fishy too. Mr. MarthaAndMe liked it (good thing, since he’ll be eating it for lunch all week now!). The kids would not touch it. I don’t think I’ll make this again.

Mr. MarthaAndMe is a major fan of tuna noodle casserole, so I decided to give this a whirl from page 130 of January Living. This is totally different from the way I make this dish. You food process onion, anchovies, capers, and artichoke hearts. Then you add in parmesan cheese, tuna water, oil and pepper. … Read more →