This recipe is from Rachel Roddy’s fabulous book, An A-Z of pasta. She introduces this one by asking if you are familar with vitello tonnato, which happens to be one of Jules’ favourite dishes, so we had to try it. Rachel uses the lumache pasta shape, which means snails and they are a bit like snail shells. We found these hard to find so we substituted conchiglie to great effect.
Wine Suggestion: look for a crisp, fresh white with a good body/structure like a dry, unoaked chardonnay from a cooler region. For us it was Céline & Frèdéric Gueguen’s Bourgogne Côtes Salines. Grown in vineyards just outside the Chablis appellation this is vibrantly fresh apple and melon flavoured with a savoury mid-palate that just melts into the tuna sauce.
Conchiglie with tuna, egg & capers – serves 4
- 1 large onion, peeled and finely chopped
- 1 stick of celery, trim to the palest bit, pull of any strings, and finely chop
- 6 tbsp olive oil
- 1 x 200g tin of tuna in olive oil, drained
- 2 tbsp tiny capers, rinsed
- 200ml white wine
- 1 unwaxed lemon, zested and juiced
- 400g conchiglie (or lumache)
- a sprig of flat-leaf parsley, finely chopped
- 2 egg yolks, beaten
Bring a large pan of water to the boil and add a generous amount of salt.
Warm the olive oil in a frying pan, then add the onion and celery with a pinch of salt and cook on a medium-low heat, until soft. You need to be patient as this will take a while.
Add the tuna and capers, stir for a minute, then add the wine and allow to bubble for 10 minutes, adding 3 tbsp of lemon juice and some zest for the last few minutes. You are looking for a saucy consistency so cook for a bit longer if it is still watery.
Meanwhile, cook the pasta according to the packet timings, then drain and tip into a warm bowl, pour the sauce over the top, add the parsley, toss together, then quickly add the egg yolks and toss again.
(Original recipe from An A-Z of Pasta by Rachel Roddy, Penguin: Fig Tree, 2021.)
Jono & Jules do food & wine 
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