Pasta with Tuna, Capers & Olives
A can of tuna, a tablespoon of capers, and six olives tossed through a pan of sautéed tomatoes and zucchini on whole wheat penne. The capers and olives bring the brine, the fresh tomatoes build the sauce, and the starchy pasta water ties everything together.
678 kcal with 51g protein and 14g fiber. Eight ingredients, fifteen minutes.
A can of tuna, a tablespoon of capers, and six olives tossed through a pan of sautéed tomatoes and zucchini on whole wheat penne. The capers and olives bring the brine, the fresh tomatoes build the sauce, and the starchy pasta water ties everything together.
678 kcal with 51g protein and 14g fiber. Eight ingredients, fifteen minutes.
Ingredients
- penne, whole wheat 3 ounces
- zucchini 1
- onion 0.25
- tomatoes 3
- olive oil 1 tablespoon
- capers 1 tablespoon
- olives 6
- tuna, in water 5 ounces
Method
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Cook the pasta according to the package instructions until al dente. Reserve the pasta water when draining.
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Dice the zucchini and finely chop the onion. Cut the tomatoes into cubes.
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Heat the oil and sauté the tomato cubes, capers, and onion for 2 minutes over low heat. Add the zucchini to the tomato sauce and cook for another 4 minutes until the zucchini is tender. Add the olives and tuna and heat through.
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Stir the penne into the sauce and add a splash of the reserved pasta water if the mixture is too dry. Season with salt and pepper to taste.
Add the tuna last and keep the heat low. Canned tuna is already cooked, so the goal is warm, not re-cooked. Thirty seconds in the hot sauce is enough. Push it much further and the chunks dry out and crumble into the pasta instead of staying in tender, forkable pieces.
Behind this recipe
Is 51g of protein too much for one meal?
A systematic review pooled decades of protein metabolism studies and found no biological ceiling at which muscle protein synthesis stops responding. The body kept processing protein well past the widely repeated 30g-per-meal threshold. Whole food sources like tuna digest more slowly than protein powder, giving your system a longer absorption window.
Read the full evidence reviewShould I use tuna in oil or tuna in water?
This recipe uses tuna in water because the olive oil already provides the fat the sauce needs. Tuna packed in water retains more DHA per ounce than oil-packed tuna, where some omega-3s leach into the packing oil that gets drained. If you swap to oil-packed, skip the tablespoon of olive oil to keep the macros in line.
Read the full evidence reviewCan I use regular pasta instead of whole wheat?
Yes. The protein and calorie count stays similar. The main trade-off is fiber: whole wheat penne contributes to this recipe's 14g of fiber. Regular pasta cuts that roughly in half. If fiber is not a priority, regular penne works fine and cooks the same way.
