Tuna Casserole

I grew up in fairly humble circumstances. My family was considered middle class, but I knew that my parents struggled as I was growing up. As such, we survived on very humble means. My mother did the very best she could with an ever dwindling food budget and we ate a lot of very basic foods: meatloaf, beef biscuit roll (a kind of roulade of hamburger and Bisquick biscuit dough) and, tuna casserole. The latter is one of those comfort foods I crave from time to time; I've since learned how to elevate it a bit, eliminating the inevitable canned goods in favor of a from scratch approach. This is my homage to simpler fair and simpler times.

Ingredients

12 oz. (one bag) of egg noodles
Five small cans of white albacore tuna
6 Tbsp. flour
6 Tbsp. butter
4 1/2 c. whole milk
1 lb. mushrooms, quartered and sautéed in butter or ghee (about 2 Tbsp.)
1/2 c. (or so) frozen or fresh (if you can get them) sweet peas
1 pinch of cayenne (optional)
Salt and pepper to taste
Approx. 1/4 c. bread crumbs
Approx. 2 Tbsp. butter to top

Sauté the mushrooms in butter until golden brown and set aside.

Cook the noodles until just under done (about 1 minute shy of the time stated on the package). Drain and set aside.

Prepare the béchamel as follows: Melt 6 Tbsp. butter in a sauce pan. When melted, add the flour and cook on medium high until the roux smells like cooked biscuits. Add 1/3 of the milk (cold--trust me on this) at a time and integrate well using a whisk. Add salt, pepper and cayenne to taste and set aside.

Drain the tuna well and put in a large mixing bowl. Add the mushrooms and any remaining juices, peas, noodles, béchamel, and mix well.

Transfer the mixture to a greased, deep side baking dish and top with the bread crumbs and chunks of butter. Bake in a 350 degree oven for about 30 minutes, or until the top is golden brown. Let cool for 15 minutes before serving.

Enjoy!

~David