Deadline Dishes with Irene Preston — Linguine with Tuna, Capers, and Raisins

This week I have the fantastic Irene Preston joining me with one of her fabulous recipes! Irene is an amazing author and her new book looks great! She’s a fellow Give Me a Taste Author and this new one from her sounds too delicious to miss. And I’m not just talking about her recipe!

Irene Preston has to write romances, after all she is living one. As a starving college student, she met her dream man who whisked her away on a romantic honeymoon across Europe. Today they live in the beautiful hill country outside of Austin, Texas where Dream Man is still working hard to make sure she never has to take off her rose-colored glasses.

Irene loves to socialize. Stop by and say hello at any of her sites!

IrenePreston.com

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So that’s the “official” bio! Real-life is slightly less rose-colored, especially when I’m on deadline.  My first foodie romance, A Taste of You, releases this week, but I didn’t bring a recipe from the book because Carlo & Garrett have major cooking skills and this is deadline dishes. Yep, when I’m on deadline, the fams are lucky if I remember to stock peanut butter and bread so they won’t starve. (Okay, slight exaggeration. My husband, Bones, is actually a great cook and will pick up the slack sometime).

Anyway, the tuna pasta recipe I brought today is a stand-by for me as a quick meal. It can be assembled in under 30 minutes, and I keep the ingredients on hand so I always have a last-minute back-up plan.

LINGUINE WITH TUNA, CAPERS, AND RAISINS

 Ingredients:

• 1 lb dried linguine
• 1/2 cup extra-virgin olive oil
• 1 large onion, chopped
• 1 tablespoon minced garlic (confession – I keep a massive jar of minced garlic from the store in the fridge rather than chopping fresh)
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/4 teaspoon black pepper
• 1 (12-oz) can solid white albacore tuna in water (drained)
• 1/3 cup drained bottled capers (packed in brine; from a 3-oz jar)
• 3/4 cup golden raisins
• 1/2 cup chopped fresh curly-leaf parsley

 Directions:

• Cook the pasta according to package instructions.
• When you drain the pasta, reserve 1 cup pasta-cooking water, then drain pasta and return to pot.
• While pasta cooks, heat oil in a 12-inch heavy skillet over high heat until hot but not smoking and cook onions and garlic with salt and pepper, stirring occasionally, until golden, 6 to 8 minutes. Stir in tuna, capers, raisins, parsley, and reserved cooking water. Add tuna mixture to pasta, tossing to combine, and serve immediately.

That’s it! Super, super, super easy.

Oh! The other thing that I love about this recipe is that you can substitute almost anything.

Linguine – almost any pasta will work. I don’t recommend angel hair or anything exceptionally thin

Fresh onion – frozen onion (you can buy this in the freezer section, or chop onions and freeze for emergencies)

Garlic – 3 fresh garlic cloves

Albacore – any canned tuna

Capers – olives – you can even use salad olives

Golden raisins – black raisins or currents (although the golden really are best)

Parsley – okay- if you must you can substitute dried parsley flakes (maybe a ¼ cup?), but fresh parsley is the one thing I find really makes a difference in this dish. I try and keep some growing so I have it on hand for recipes, or if I am short I always pick it up at the market.

Note: I originally found this recipe in Gourmet magazine and you can find it on Epicurious.com (along with a better picture).

A TASTE OF YOU

Hell’s Kitchen has nothing on the flames Giancarlo and Garrett ignite at Restaurant Ransom…

Garrett Ransom is America’s hot chef du jour. He has a Michelin-starred restaurant in New York City, a hit reality TV show, and a new man in his bed every week. Yes, he secretly thinks his business partner, Giancarlo “Carlo” Rotolo, is hotter than a ghost pepper, but he would never jeopardize their friendship with a fling. Then Garrett overhears some juicy gossip among the crew and realizes he’ll have to break Giancarlo’s cardinal rule, no banging the staff – for Carlo’s own good, of course. Just a taste of Carlo should be plenty. Long-term relationships aren’t on Garrett’s menu.

Giancarlo’s been in love with Garrett forever. He’s sure Garrett will eventually realize they are destined to be more than business partners. But when Garrett installs his latest boyfriend as their new chef d’cuisine and announces plans to leave Carlo in New York while he opens a second restaurant on the west coast, Carlo is forced to re-evaluate his life.

Can a high-strung British chef and a nice Italian boy from Brooklyn find the perfect fusion of fine-dining and family-style?

Read the full first chapter on IrenePreston.com

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