Ingredients:

2 cups egg noodles

2 cup milk

1 cup heavy cream

1/2 stick butter

2 oz cream cheese

1 cup peas

1 cup parmesan cheese grated

1 can albacore tunafish drained

(Optional: instead of 1 cup peas, you can do 1/2 cup of peas and a 1/2 cup of diced carrots)

Makes two servings.

First off, I have to admit that I had an absolute love for Betty Crocker’s classic tuna noodle growing up.  It was my favorite food that I always got on my birthday, and was easy for me to make myself as a teenager.  Then, after years of this addiction, they changed their recipe.  I was pretty sad about that, and turned to hard copies and virtual copies of tuna noodle recipes to get that same flavor.  However, I quickly realized that practically every recipe I ran into called for cream of chicken or cream of mushroom soup.  This never created the same taste as I remembered my favorite meal having.  Thus, my own version of what I thought a tuna noodle casserole should taste like.  I think the secret is in making an alfredo sauce instead of using the condensed soup route (not that that is a bad thing, but it wasn’t the flavor I was looking for).

Tuna Noodle Base

To start this recipe, we begin with the milk, heavy cream, butter, and cream cheese in a sauce pan.  Bring to almost a light boil while whisking to help dissolve the cream cheese.

Noodles, peas, and tuna fish

Once the cream cheese is blended and the liquid contents are almost to a boil, add the egg noodles, peas, and tuna fish.  Cook until your noodles are el dente by covering the saucepan with a lid, and turning the heat down to simmer for about 10-15 minutes.

Lastly, remove the saucepan from the heat and add the parmesan cheese.  Use your whisk to mix in the cheese.  It is important to not add the parmesan cheese too early because the cheese will curd instead of being a smooth texture.  You may get tuna fish, noodles, and peas in the whisk while doing this.  That is okay.  You can give your whisk a tap on the side of your saucepan and they will fall right out of your whisk.

Added in the parmesan

Now, it’s time to enjoy the fruits of your labor.  If you’d like, you can sprinkle a little more parmesan on your portion of tuna noodle casserole before serving.

Enjoy!

I hope you enjoyed my version of a classical tasting Betty Crocker tuna noodle. 🙂