Tuna Pasta Bake

Pasta and tuna in a creamy cheese sauce with sweetcorn, baked under a golden crust. It's a proper storecupboard hero — cheap, filling and made mostly from tins and freezer staples.

Tuna pasta bake is a proper store-cupboard dinner — a couple of tins of tuna, some pasta and cheese, and you’ve got a filling family meal for very little money. The cheese sauce takes it from a basic tuna pasta to something comforting and golden, and it’s endlessly adaptable to whatever veg you’ve got knocking about.

Ingredients

• 300g pasta — penne or fusilli
• 40g butter
• 40g plain flour
• 600ml milk — warmed
• 150g cheddar — grated, plus extra for the top
• 2 x 145g tins tuna — drained
• 200g tinned or frozen sweetcorn
• 1 tsp Dijon mustard — optional

Method

1. Cook the pasta to just under the packet time, then drain. Heat the oven to 200°C (fan 180°C).
2. Melt the butter, stir in the flour and cook for 1 minute, then gradually whisk in the warm milk to a smooth sauce and simmer until thickened.
3. Off the heat, stir in most of the cheese and the mustard until melted and smooth, then season.
4. Fold through the pasta, tuna and sweetcorn, then tip into a baking dish.
5. Scatter with the remaining cheese and bake for 15–20 minutes until golden and bubbling.

Serve it with

• A crisp green salad
• Garlic bread
• Peas or steamed broccoli
• A dollop of ketchup for the kids

Why this works

A proper cheese sauce, made on a roux with the milk added gradually, coats every piece of pasta so the bake stays creamy rather than drying out. The sweetcorn adds pops of sweetness that balance the savoury tuna and cheese.

Common swaps

• Stir in peas, spinach or chopped peppers.
• Top with breadcrumbs for extra crunch.
• Use tinned salmon instead of tuna.

Common mistakes to avoid

• A grainy sauce from adding cheese over high heat — do it off the heat.
• Overcooking the pasta before baking, so it turns mushy.
• A dry bake; make sure there's plenty of sauce to coat the pasta.

Storage, freezing & reheating

Storage: Keep covered in the fridge for up to 2 days.

Freezing: Freezes well for up to 2 months; defrost in the fridge before reheating.

Reheating: Reheat in the oven or microwave until piping hot, adding a splash of milk to loosen.

Allergen notes: contains gluten, milk, fish, mustard. Always check individual product labels.

Estimated nutrition

Per serving, estimated from typical ingredient values — not a substitute for precise dietary calculation.