By Christie Vanover | Published October 12, 2011 | Last Updated December 28, 2022
Mrs. Stouffer has been stalking me all day. I came home after another 11-hour workday and she was waiting for me in the kitchen, begging me to take her back. She even brought her friends, the Hamburger Helper Helping Hand and Charlie the Tuna.
But I stood my ground and told her I already had a homemade, healthy tuna tetrazzini ready to throw in the oven, and I kindly showed her the door.
I grew up on Tuna Helper Tuna Tetrazzini. My mom was great at pulling us all around the family table for dinner, but with our busy schedules of cheerleading, wrestling and softball, she turned to the Helping Hand every now and then.
I wanted to relive that classic family memory, so I made a homemade version using the Zestuous Weeknight Mornay (Cheese) Sauce. It was just as I remembered growing up…only much fresher.
You can make this dish with fresh tuna that you grill or bake and shred…but I did have a weak moment and cheated on Mrs. Stouffer with Charlie the Tuna. He’s just so darn cute. Truly, I took the easier route since I was making 5 different dishes this weekend. Next time, I will use fresh tuna…sorry Charlie.
Tuna Tetrazzini
Ingredients
- 13.5 ozs thin spaghetti uncooked
- 1 tablespoon butter
- ½ cup onion diced
- ½ cup celery diced
- 1 ½ cups tuna cooked
- ½ cup frozen peas thawed
- 3 tablespoon butter
- ¼ cup flour
- 2 cups milk
- 2 cups cheddar cheese shredded
- 1 teaspoon salt
- ½ teaspoon Tony Chachere’s Cajun Seasoning
- Panko breadcrumbs
Instructions
- Cook the pasta, until it's al dente.
- Heat the butter in a skillet and sauté the onions and celery, until tender.
- Prepare the mornay sauce, using the butter, flour, milk, 2 cups cheddar cheese and season with salt and Tony’s.
- Combine the pasta, sautéed veggies, peas, tuna and mornay sauce.
- Spoon into baking dish and sprinkle with panko breadcrumbs. You can also add more cheese and/or butter on top for more deliciousness.
- Bake at 350F degrees for 15-20 minutes, or until heated through.
Nutrition
This estimate was created using an online nutrition calculator
gaetana tine says
I would like to print out the recipe, tell me how I can
Anonymous says
I just got married, I’m 18 and want to let my husband know I can cook, he loves tuna and I want a good recipe for tuna casserole, can anyone help me, PLEASE
Anonymous says
butter pan first?
Virginia says
How many servings?
Anonymous says
how many servings?
Anonymous says
No nutritonal value given ??????????????????
Mary Ann Schweers says
You don’t give a size to the pan that you use. Is it 8 x 8 9 x9 13 ? Or what?
Anonymous says
1 and a half cans of tuna? great planning.
Christie Vanover says
The recipe calls for 1 1/2 cups of tuna, not 1 1/2 cans. 1 1/2 cups is equal to 3 5-ounce cans.
Christie Vanover says
I baked this one in a 6.5 x 9.5″ pan. You can bake it in whatever size you’d like. The smaller the pan, the thicker it will be.
Anonymous says
Do you bake it covered with foil?
Christie Vanover says
No. I remove the foil so the top gets crunchy.
Lori says
I loved the the box tuna tetrazzini I grew up with. Of course the stores don’t carry it. It was that certain taste it had. Not sure what spice it was.
Does Tony’s Cajun come close?
Susan Yingling says
This casserole is outstanding! I made it with what I had on hand, which included Charlie’s canned tuna. I def want to try it with fresh tuna. Because I didn’t have Panko handy, I used a whole package of peas & substituted a package of dry stuffing mix that I processed with 1/2 stick of melted butter & spread it evenly over the top & covered it with foil. Because it was such a large dish, I baked it at 350° for 35 minutes and then sprinkled with more cheddar & baked for 10 more minutes. My husband went nuts for this.
Christie Vanover says
Awesome. So glad it was a hit.
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