Tuna Noodle Casserole

Ingredients
4 ounces Monterey Jack cheese, shredded
4 ounces sharp cheddar cheese, shredded
2 cups potato chips, crushed
2 slices white sandwich bread, torn into 1-inch pieces
6 tablespoons butter
Salt and pepper
15 ounces white tuna packed, drained if necessary
2 tablespoons olive oil
2 teaspoons lemon juice
12 ounces egg noodles
16 ounces mushrooms, sliced
1 onion, finely chopped
1 red bell pepper, stemmed, seeded, and finely chopped
3 tablespoons all purpose flour
3 ¹⁄₂ cups half and half
1 ¹⁄₂ cups chicken broth
1 ¹⁄₂ cups frozen peas

Instructions
1. Heat oven to 425*F. Combine Monterey Jack and cheddar in bowl. Pulse potato chips, bread, ¹⁄₄ cup cheese mixture, 2 tablespoons butter, ¹⁄₄ teaspoon salt, and ¹⁄₄ teaspoon pepper in food processor until coarsely ground; set aside.

2. Place tuna in large bowl and flake into coarse pieces with fork. Microwave oil, lemon juice, ¹⁄₂ teaspoon salt, and ¹⁄₂ teaspoon pepper in small bowl until bubbling around edges, about 30 seconds. Stir oil mixture into tuna and let sit for 10 minutes.

3. Bring water to boil in Dutch oven. Add pasta and 1 tablespoon salt and cook until just al dente. Drain pasta and rinse with cold water until cool, about 2 minutes. Drain again and set aside. Melt 1 tablespoon butter in now-empty pot over medium-high heat. Add mushrooms and ¹⁄₄ teaspoon salt and cook until liquid evaporates and mushrooms are browned, 6 to 8 minutes. Transfer mushrooms to bowl with tuna mixture. Add 1 tablespoon butter, onion, and bell pepper to now-empty pot and cook, stirring occasionally, until softened, about 5 minutes. Transfer to bowl with tuna-mushroom mixture; set aside.

4. In now-empty pot, melt remaining 2 tablespoons butter over medium heat. Add flour and cook, whisking constantly, until golden, about 1 minute. Slowly whisk in half and half and broth and bring to boil. Reduce heat to medium-low and simmer until slightly thickened, 5 to 7 minutes. Off heat, whisk in remaining cheese mixture until smooth. Stir in pasta, tuna-vegetable mixture, peas, ¹⁄₂ teaspoon salt, and ¹⁄₂ teaspoon pepper.

5. Top with bread-crumb mixture. Bake until golden brown, 12 to 14 minutes. Let casserole cool 10 minutes before serving. 

Comments
This recipe is from Cook’s Country 2012.  (At the time of this posting, the annual wasn’t available so I can’t link to it.)  I grew up eating a much less… refined version of Tuna Casserole, so I thought it would be nice to try out this version that included noodles and vegetables! 

For the most part, I enjoyed this.  Lance felt that it needed more topping and I think that could have been fixed in two ways.  First – more potato chips.  Second – actually transfer the casserole to a 13x9-inch pan like the original recipe says to in order to increase surface area. 

I’m not 100% sold on the bell peppers in this, but, otherwise, I thought it was super tasty and delicious.  I’ll definitely give this a go in the future.

Cook’s Country 2012