{"id":3780,"date":"2018-01-17T09:00:16","date_gmt":"2018-01-17T16:00:16","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/villasentieri.com\/?post_type=recipe&p=3780"},"modified":"2026-09-02T10:58:48","modified_gmt":"2026-09-02T17:58:48","slug":"spaghetti-with-tuna-sauce","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/villasentieri.com\/index.php\/2018\/01\/17\/spaghetti-with-tuna-sauce\/","title":{"rendered":"Spaghetti with Tuna Sauce"},"content":{"rendered":"

January 17, 2018<\/span><\/p>\n

Tomatoes\u2026and tuna\u2026not clams or squid\u2026as a sauce for pasta\u2026quite a challenge for me as a young adult!<\/p>\n

Although pasta (spaghetti, really) with red sauce and clams or squid was in my wheelhouse as an adolescent, the idea of a red sauce with tuna was, most definitely, not!<\/p>\n

My undergraduate advisor, and later my business partner when I set up my psychiatric practice in Philadelphia, Gene d\u2019Aquili<\/a>, was a first-generation American of Italian and French descent.\u00a0 I frequently cooked at his home in Berwyn on Philadelphia\u2019s Main Line.\u00a0 (If you read the obituary link above, you will notice a comment about a sign that read \u201cFantasyland.\u201d\u00a0 I was the person who had that sign painted after years of Gene referring to his estate by that name.\u00a0 I had the sign painted in Guyana on a trip when I was doing research for my doctoral dissertation and ended up on the Guyana Airways float for the Mashramani parade but that’s a whole other story!)<\/p>\n

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The 1981 Guyana Airways Mashramani float. I was supposed to represent one of the Canadian pilots.<\/strong><\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
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Gene\u2019s father\u2019s family was from Rome.\u00a0 Gene\u2019s grandparents emigrated to the United States with their four children, Gene\u2019s father Guido, and Guido\u2019s three sisters, very early in the 20th century.\u00a0 One of the sisters died not long after coming to the United States.\u00a0 The other two, Auntie Helen and Auntie Louise, are the reasons I now drink bourbon (Auntie Louise) and know a lot about traditional Roman cuisine (Auntie Helen).<\/p>\n

The family home is now part of the American Embassy in Rome.\u00a0 There are several buildings that are part of the American Embassy but I believe the palazzo pictured below was the one the d’Aquili family owned before coming to the United States.<\/p>\n

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One of the American Embassy buildings in Rome that I believe was the d’Aquili palazzo.<\/span><\/strong><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
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Gene\u2019s father, Guido, was a fine artist of the New Hope School.\u00a0 In a previous post, I included some pictures of some of the Old King Cole murals<\/a> that he painted for a private club in Trenton, NJ.\u00a0 Those murals ended up in the dining room of the carriage house I rented on the d\u2019Aquili estate in Berwyn, PA when I was in medical school.<\/p>\n

One of Gene\u2019s ancestors was Antoniazzo Romano<\/a>, a famous artist of the 15th century.\u00a0 His father’s artistic bent is part of a long family tradition.<\/p>\n

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The Annunciation by Antoniazzo Romano<\/span><\/strong><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

For one dinner at “Fantasyland,” really known as “Salus House,” Gene and his wife, Mary Lou, wanted to serve spaghetti with tuna sauce; a classically Italian dish but completely unknown to me at the time.<\/p>\n

I winged it based on his description.\u00a0 It was basically a simple tomato sauce (what we as Americans might call Marinara but what Italians would call Pomodoro) with tuna simmered into it.<\/p>\n

It was good, and although many years went by before I made it again, it stuck in my memory.<\/p>\n

I\u2019ve tweaked the recipe over the years but it really hasn\u2019t varied much from my initial foray into making spaghetti with tuna sauce based on Gene\u2019s description.<\/p>\n

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If you have a favorite family recipe and a bit of a story to tell, please email me at santafecook@villasentieri.com<\/a> and we can discuss including it in the blog. I am expanding the scope of my blog to include traditional recipes from around the country and around the world. If you haven\u2019t seen Bertha\u2019s Flan<\/a> or Melinda\u2019s Drunken Prunes<\/a>, take a look.\u00a0 They will give you an idea of what I\u2019m looking for.<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

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Spaghetti with Tuna Sauce<\/h2>\n
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Although mushrooms are not strictly traditional, their presence is not really noticeable and I think they add a bit of savoriness to the sauce. You can omit them if you wish. It is important to use good quality tuna to avoid any \u201ctinny\u201d taste. Italian Tonno is ideal but a good American brand will work fine. The small amount of sugar is intended to counteract the sourness that some canned tomatoes can have. Adjust up or down to your taste. The presence of the sugar should not be detectable, however.<\/div>\n
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Prep Time <\/span>15 minutes<\/span><\/span> mins<\/span><\/span><\/div>
Cook Time <\/span>1 hour<\/span><\/span> hr<\/span><\/span><\/div>
Total Time <\/span>1 hour<\/span><\/span> hr<\/span> 15 minutes<\/span><\/span> mins<\/span><\/span><\/div><\/div>\n
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Servings: <\/span>6<\/span> people<\/span><\/span><\/div><\/div><\/div>\n <\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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Ingredients
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