Tuna and Parmigiano pasta: Does it give you goosebumps just reading this? Let's look at the facts.
Tuna pasta is one of the easiest Italian pasta recipes par excellence. Of course, we're talking about tuna in oil – or rather, canned tuna. How do you make it?
Just cook the pasta and add it to the tuna – even directly on the plate is fine. Some like to remove the oil from the can, adding extra-virgin olive oil in its place. Some people, on the other hand, love the taste of the oil from the can, so they don’t replace it.
After mixing well, the crucial moment comes.
Tuna and Parmigiano pasta: Can you make it?
The sprinkling of Parmigiano cheese on tuna pasta is more common than you think, but it certainly triggers some controversial debate.
There are also those who make distinctions: Parmigiano cheese on tuna pasta is only good if you dress the pasta directly with the can of tuna in oil, so as to enrich the dish in some way. If tuna pasta also includes fried garlic, oil, and red chili pepper, many would no longer grate the Parmigiano cheese over the dish.
Can you pair cheese and fish, though?
To say that cheese cannot be combined with fish under any circumstance is an almost exclusively Italian opinion. Julia della Croce, an American expert in Italian cuisine, claims that this custom derives from the fact that in the past, fish was eaten only along the coast in Italy, while most cheeses were produced and consumed mainly inland. Only a question of culture and tradition then: Fish can be combined with cheese, and it is not only haute cuisine chefs who try it in their sought-after recipes. Just think of the classic combination between smoked salmon and cream cheese.
And what about the people who grate Parmigiano over spaghetti alle vongole? This is also a widely spread and discussed custom throughout Italy. In the Venice area, for example, mussels and clams are often cooked with the addition of cheese.
So – what is the answer to all these questions? Can you make pasta with tuna and parmesan cheese? Of course, it can be done! As long as you don't go overboard or trigger any strange chemical reactions, cooking is really just a matter of personal taste and creativity!