A Healthy Tuna Gold Pasta Sauce

I finally made it to La Cigale, Parnell’s famous French style market, on a summery Sunday morning. Although it was crowded the atmosphere was laid back. It was a great place to wander.

My intention had been just to pick up some fresh veggies, but I was soon waylaid by a lot of tempting foods which stallholders were eager for people to sample. How could I resist good cheeses, sausages, balsamic vinegars, olive oils, salmon and more!

The breads looked great too and after exerting my will power and bypassing the chocolate croissants I settled for a loaf of kumara bread sprinkled with sunflower seeds. It proved to be delicious with the chunks of kumara giving it a somewhat earthy and slightly sweet flavour.

After filling my basket with a heap of fresh veggies I spotted some bottles of Tuna Gold, a product I had not seen before. It reminded me of the first time I tasted bottled fish in Seward, Alaska. We had hired a little cabin on the outskirts of the town. It had two regular but elusive visitors, a Momma Moose and her baby. We found two sets of fresh footprints outside our window most mornings, but we never caught sight of them.

The owners generously brought over some special homemade Alaskan treats for us to sample including lingonberry jam and bottled salmon. The salmon was not as compressed and salty as the canned variety we were used to, and had a more natural flavour. It took a little bit of getting used to, but once we had acquired the taste we enjoyed it very much spooned onto freshly buttered bread or stirred into a pasta sauce.

I weighed up whether to buy some Tuna Gold. It is more expensive but it is better for you than canned fish which is cooked twice, once outside and once in the can. This causes some of the healthy nutrients to be lost.

 In contrast, to make Tuna Gold large chunks of wild albacore tuna are simply packed into glass jars and cooked once. This allows them to retain more of the highly beneficial Omega-3 fatty acids which are reputed to be a miracle food of the 21st century. They are believed to help prevent heart disease, relieve joint pains, improve brain function and stave off depression. So Tuna Gold really is good food inside a bottle.

Another thing to recommend it is that it is a product which is both caught and processed locally. Dale Coker and his team catch the tuna from his vessel Pegasus II which is based in Whangaroa Harbour. They use surface long lines and jigs which are both sea bird and dolphin friendly.

Once caught the fish is often landed at Opua, and transported directly to the factory in Harura Falls where it is processed by hand into Tuna Gold. It is cut into large cubes, packed into jars, a sauce is added and it is then cooked in a pressure cooker. From there it is sold to specialised shops throughout Northland and by his wife Beth at a stall at La Cigale Market.

Healthy, but would it be tasty as well? There was only one way to find out. One of the great things about markets is that there is often an opportunity to taste before you buy Beth Coker encouraged us to taste. She is passionate about this healthy product, and especially how good it is for children. She would love to see it on every family table.

She gave me plenty of serving suggestions. You can toss it over warm pasta, including the sauce from the jar, mix it into a flavoursome risotto, use it in a stir fry with fresh vegetables, serve it cold with a fresh garden salad, on crackers or sandwiches or simply just eat it straight from the jar.

It tasted good and was obviously a versatile food so I decided to purchase a couple of bottles. That evening we enjoyed it with a pre-dinner drink on crackers. The following day I decided to be a little more adventurous and created a pasta dish with some red peppers that were lying around my kitchen. It turned out well. Although I created it especially for Tuna Gold, it would also taste nice with canned tuna,

Here is the recipe:

Tuna Gold Pasta Sauce

Ingredients:

3 red peppers (chopped)

3 garlic cloves

½ onion (chopped)

1 400gm can Watties tomato puree

Salt and freshly ground pepper to taste.

Ridged Pasta.

Method:

Bake the first 3 ingredients about 20 minutes in a moderate oven

Remove garlic and squeeze it.

Puree everything with tomato puree in the food processor until smooth or leave it a little chunky if wished

Gently stir in 1 bottle of Tuna Gold.

In the meantime heat ridged pasta until al dente.

Pour the sauce over the pasta.

Grate parmesan over the top and scatter with ripped basil leaves.

You can find Tuna Gold at La Cigale Market

Or order it directly from here.