Tomato, Tuna and Cheese Mac

 I recently was making a macaroni and cheese casserole and made way too much macaroni. So, my plan was to use half of it for the mac and cheese and the other half for some classic tuna mac -- you know that easy dish you throw together on the stove top with macaroni, a can of tuna, a can of peas and a can of cream of mushroom soup. Well, much to my dismay, I had no cream of mushroom soup. I don't use canned soups very often, but I like to keep a can in the pantry to use in recipes and now that the weather has cooled it comes in handy for hearty dishes or casseroles. So, I had to figure out what to do.

I did have a little extra cheese sauce for the mac and cheese dish, so I added it to my pot of macaroni and stirred. Click here for the post with that recipe for the cheese sauce.

Then I added the other ingredients I would normally use:

a can of peas, drained
1 envelope of chunk white tuna

I also added a can of seasoned diced tomatoes that I drained, which was a nice addition.

I also had a pack of these on my counter and placed one in my bowl. Have you had these? They are so good! It adds a nice crunch to dishes with a savory, sharp flavor.

In September I attended a media dinner at Niche Restaurant in Geneva, where we were served a warm tomato tart as part of the exquisite meal. The tomato jam was served with arugula and goat cheese (if I remember correctly) and also a Parmesan crisp that gave that little bit of crunch to perfect the dish.

The cheese crisps I used with my tuna mac are ones I bought at Strack and Van 'Til that are made locally. They aren't quite the same as what I had at Niche, but I do love them and they take me back to that wonderful warm tomato tart.

So, I topped it with a Gourmet CheeseCrisp from Capricorn Foods.

I also sprinkled a little paprika on my serving, which added another nice little layer of flavor.