Tuna Noodle Casserole
A from-scratch cream sauce instead of canned soup, elbows pulled early, breadcrumbs toasted separately so the top stays crunchy.
- Prep
- 20 min
- Cook
- 30 min
- Total
- 50 min
- Serves
- 6
Ingredients
One 9 by 13 inch dish.
- ThinSlim 8 oz ThinSlim Foods Impastable Low Carb Pasta Elbows
- ThinSlim 3/4 cup ThinSlim Foods Love-the-Taste Low Carb Breadcrumbs Plain
- 5 tbsp unsalted butter, divided
- 8 oz cremini mushrooms, sliced
- 1 small yellow onion, diced
- 2 celery ribs, diced
- 3 tbsp all purpose flour or 2 tbsp arrowroot
- 2 cups whole milk, warm
- 1 cup chicken stock
- 2 cans (5 oz each) tuna in oil, drained well
- 1 cup frozen peas
- 6 oz sharp cheddar, shredded
- 1 tsp Dijon mustard
- Kosher salt and black pepper
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Method
- Heat the oven to 375F and butter a 9 by 13 inch dish.
- Melt 2 tbsp of the butter in a skillet and toast the breadcrumbs over medium heat 3 to 4 minutes, stirring, until golden and smelling nutty. Tip them onto a plate and set aside.
- Boil the elbows in well salted water for two minutes less than the package timing. Drain and spread them on a sheet pan so they stop cooking.
- Melt the remaining butter in a wide pot. Cook the mushrooms 6 minutes without stirring much, until browned and the pan is dry again.
- Add the onion and celery and cook 5 minutes, until soft.
- Sprinkle in the flour and cook 1 minute, stirring. Pour in the warm milk in three additions, whisking smooth between each, then the stock.
- Simmer 4 to 5 minutes until the sauce coats the back of a spoon and holds a line when you draw a finger through it.
- Off the heat stir in the cheddar, the mustard, 1 tsp salt and plenty of pepper, then fold in the tuna, peas and drained elbows.
- Spread it in the dish and bake 20 minutes, until bubbling at the edges.
- Scatter the toasted breadcrumbs over the top and bake 5 minutes more. Rest 10 minutes before serving.
Tips
Toast the breadcrumbs in a pan, not on the casserole. Baked on raw they sit in steam coming off the sauce and never crisp. Toasted first and added at the end, they stay crunchy through serving.
Pull the elbows two minutes early and cool them flat. Impastable keeps softening in a hot sauce, and a casserole that was perfect going in is mushy coming out if you started at the package timing.
Make the sauce thicker than looks right. It loosens in the oven, and this pasta absorbs less of it than semolina, so a sauce that looks correct in the pot ends up thin in the dish.
Drain the tuna hard. Oil left in the can is oil that breaks the sauce.
Pull the elbows two minutes early and cool them flat. Impastable keeps softening in a hot sauce, and a casserole that was perfect going in is mushy coming out if you started at the package timing.
Make the sauce thicker than looks right. It loosens in the oven, and this pasta absorbs less of it than semolina, so a sauce that looks correct in the pot ends up thin in the dish.
Drain the tuna hard. Oil left in the can is oil that breaks the sauce.