Prep: 20 minutes Bake 30 minutes

I love tuna melts and I was excited for this idea to have them in a new fashion. I was looking for pasta and this was a great find. Stuffed shells are always fun and this new take on it was an adventure that worked out. This entree is low work to prep, though it takes time to bake but something fun for dinner for a family.

Ingredients

• 12 oz can of tuna, drained of water

• 1/2 onion

• 1 stalk celery

• 1 1/3 cup of alfredo sauce (buy a 15 oz or slightly more jar of this, you’ll want left overs for later)

• Shredded cheese as you please (I did cheddar but any taste you want really)

• Pepper

• 14-16 jumbo pasta shells

Prep

1. Preheat oven to 375 F

2. In boiling water, cook the pasta shells for about 9 minutes. You want to under cook them a bit since they will be baked later

3. Chop the onions and celery while it’s cooking

4. In a decent sized bowl, add the onions, celery, tuna, pepper, and 1 1/3 cup of alfredo sauce

5. Mix this all together well. Get this mess going

6. When shells are done, grab an 8x8 (at least) baking pan (glass is best)

7. Use a small spoon to scoop and stuff the shells with the tuna mixture and add to the pans

8. Pour the remaining alfredo sauce on the top of the shells

9. Add the shredded cheese as desired on top

10. Bake for 30 minutes making sure the sauce is bubbling and the cheese melted

Afterthoughts

This tasted exactly like a tuna melt does and without all the bread. That was insane. This was a great taste, that was warm, gooey and light at the same time. The shells don’t bring a whole lot but structure to it. I did have too much of the tuna mixture for the amount of shells I made (12) so I upped that for this recipe. I was surprised about the alfredo, as I thought tuna salad was mayo based but this did not taste of of place or weird at all. It was tasty, easy and fun to have. This would work great as a summer lunch on a veranda.