The other night I was stuck at work fairly late….when I got home, I got a call from Steph telling me that I was on my own for dinner. As I had no desire to go back out, I turned to look at my options. In general terms I was thinking either "Microwave Burrito" or maybe some "Pasta". It was then I had a brilliant idea…I'd take the pasta, some leftovers and a can o' tuna and make a casserole of sorts!!

Our stars for the night:

Now, ya'll may be wondering what exactly is the 'surprise'? I mean…it looks like pretty standard fare, despite the fresh parmesan and the semi expensive tuna in oil…well….tonight's secret ingredient is….(in best Iron Chef Chairman Voice):

PANKO BREADCRUMBS!!! Usually, I'm a fresh breadcrumb type of guy…but I've been dying for an excuse to use these as I salted the water (for the pasta) and began grating the cheese.

Seriously…how good is that tuna looking? I was brought up on tuna in fresh water, and truth be told, it is way more healthy for you than the dark tuna in oil. HOWEVER, there isn't much taste to those tuna's packed in water with light meat…the dark meat in oil actually tastes like something! Pasta cooked and strained it was on to the assembly of the dish in pyrex. I started with a layer of breadcrumbs, then pasta, then tuna, next the pasta sauce followed by the cheese and breadcrumbs…looked a bit like this:

After I baked it for 10 minutes…I threw it under the broiler for another five to get a nice golden crust on top.

I will say, for a dish I threw together in a short period of time, there was a lot of flavor and good mixture of textures that wasn't overally unappealing to the eye

Lessons Learned: Nice to keep an open mind when doing dinner…try to kick up an ordinary dish into something you may not have thought of. It didn't take that much longer to put this together than just throw pasta and sauce together, but it was so much more flavorful and enjoyable.

FINISHED!!!