Tinned Tuna Recipe — Braised Peppers with Capers

Puerto Lápice sits on the La Sierrecilla elevation overlooking the plain, and at night the wind turbines on the ridge are lit — slow, quiet, turning. Don Quixote country. It felt like the right place to cook a simple tinned tuna recipe and do very little very well.

I'd bypassed the paid área at the top of town — the machine on the terminal at Alcázar de San Juan two days earlier had put me off — and found the original free área at the other end of the village instead. No electricity, but grey water, black water and fresh water. Issy was happy. The view was better than anything a machine could have offered.

These olive-oil braised peppers with tuna and capers took twenty minutes and used one pan. The tuna was from a tin — good tuna, packed in olive oil — and that oil does half the work. The lemon does the rest.

It's the kind of tinned tuna recipe that doesn't taste like one.

Olive-Oil Braised Peppers with Tuna and Capers — A Van Kitchen Recipe

Serves 1 | Frying pan | Prep 5 mins | Cook 15 mins | Total 20 mins

Ingredients

• ½ red pepper, sliced
• ½ yellow pepper, sliced (or just use a whole red pepper if that's what you have)
• ½ small onion, sliced
• 1 garlic clove, sliced
• 1–2 tbsp olive oil
• 1 small tomato, chopped (or 3–4 tbsp passata)
• 1 tin good tuna in olive oil, drained (80–120g drained weight)
• 1 tbsp capers, drained
• A squeeze of lemon
• A small handful of flat-leaf parsley, roughly chopped
• Sea salt and black pepper

Method

1. Heat the olive oil in a frying pan over a medium-low heat. Add the onion and peppers and cook slowly until soft and beginning to colour — 8–10 minutes. Don't rush this; the slow braise is the point.
2. Add the garlic and cook for a further minute until just golden.
3. Add the tomato or passata. Stir to combine and cook for 2–3 minutes until it collapses into the peppers.
4. Add the capers and stir through. Add the drained tuna, breaking it into the pan in chunks — don't overwork it, you want pieces rather than mush. The residual olive oil from the tin goes in too.
5. Remove from the heat. Add a squeeze of lemon and scatter with parsley. Season and serve straight from the pan.

Recipe Notes

• Use the best tuna you can carry. Tuna in olive oil is worth the extra — the oil from the tin adds flavour to the whole dish and means you need less of your own. That's what makes this tinned tuna recipe work.
• Slow is the method here. The peppers need time to soften properly and pick up a little colour — if you rush them the dish loses its backbone.
• A whole red pepper works just as well as the red and yellow combination. In a van, you use what you have.
• Capers keep well in a van larder — a small jar lasts a long time and punches well above its weight in dishes like this.
• This is good with bread to mop up the pan juices, if you have it.

Footnote

This tinned tuna recipe — braised peppers with capers — is part of my Campervan Cooking Recipes collection — van-friendly recipes, one-pan cooking and food from the road.

They also feature in my Spanish Recipes collection — Spanish classics, regional dishes and flavours from across the Peninsula.

They also feature in my Fish & Seafood Recipes collection — fish and seafood cooked simply and well.

Find more recipes and food adventures here.

Wonky photos, proper food, genuine adventures — The Flexible Chef