Sunday, July 19, 2015

Tuna Noodle Casserole

David loves casseroles. LOVES THEM. He keeps talking about starting a food truck that sells nothing but casserole. (Gold mine idea, btw.) In his honor, we are proud to present:

TUNA NOODLE CASSEROLE
2 10¾ oz. cans condensed cream of mushroom soup
1 cup milk
1 cup mayonnaise
3 cans (6 oz. each) quality tuna, drained and flaked (life's too short to eat bad tuna)
1 cup frozen baby peas
 ½ cup red bell pepper, diced
12 oz. egg noodles, cooked and drained
1 cup breadcrumbs (panko is fantastic for this)
enough melted butter to moisten the breadcrumbs

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. In a 9x13" glass baking dish, thoroughly combine soup, milk, mayo, tuna, peas, bell pepper and noodles. Stir together breadcrumbs and butter and sprinkle them over the top of the casserole. Bake about 30 minutes, until the topping is nicely browned and the casserole is bubbling around the edges of the dish.

Serves 6.

You can transform this recipe into Chicken Noodle Casserole by substituting 2 cans of cream of chicken soup for the cream of mushroom and 20 oz. canned chicken chunks, drained and flaked, for the tuna -- or just use fresh chicken meat picked from a boiled or rotisserie chicken. Oh yeah, and David would tell you not to mess with breadcrumbs and butter; go grab a good handful of potato chips, crunch them up good and sprinkle THAT over the casserole instead.

Shamelessly stolen and tweaked from the Look and Cook Book by Tina Davis.