🐟 What Makes This Recipe So Good
Growing up, we ate my mom’s tuna noodle casserole recipe all the time, and it’s still one of my favorites. Mom’s been making it for over 40 years, and her mom made it for her when she was a kid. As Catholics, they had it every Friday (It was that or fish sticks, ha!). Even now, whenever I need a quick and cheap comfort food meal from the pantry and freezer, this one comes to mind. I admit, it’s not totally the casserole from my childhood. I upgraded it to be super creamy and saucy, with some veggies. This recipe doesn’t use any canned soups like most tuna noodle casserole recipes. No cream of mushroom – just real roux, milk, and cheese!
👩🏼🍳 Chef’s Tips
Instead of using prepackaged shredded cheese, I recommend buying a block of fresh cheddar and shredding it yourself. Prepackaged shredded and grated cheeses typically contain starches and other fillers to prevent clumping, but they can make the cheese grainy and keep it from melting like it should. To be sure the dairy products don’t seize, separate, or curdle, bring them to room temperature before starting your tuna noodle casserole. Also, remove the saucepan from direct heat before incorporating any dairy ingredients, to prevent heating them too quickly. Since the noodles get cooked twice (once on the stove, again in the oven) you want to make sure they’re just barely cooked when you take them off the stovetop. This will keep them from overcooking in the oven.
🍴 Recipe Variations
For a gluten-free tuna noodle casserole, substitute the egg noodles with an equal weight of gluten-free noodles. Replace the all-purpose flour with the same amount of gluten-free flour, too. You can use gluten-free breadcrumbs if you can find them, but if not, it’s super easy to make some out of gluten-free bread. Or just leave them out! They are totally optional. If you don’t have peas or just don’t like them, you can leave them out. You can also sub basically any other veggie you like in their place. Chopped broccoli? Asparagus? Spinach? Corn? All great options.
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