Canned tuna a frugal food that works well in many dishes

Some comfort foods come with more than one virtue. Start with a simple can of tuna, for example, especially if it’s time to tighten your budget and reduce your spending.

Canned tuna may be everyone’s favorite frugal food. It can be incorporated into salads, pasta or rice dishes, and a tuna salad sandwich, a colleague comments, is the best-tasting comfort food whether you’re broke or flush.

Canned tuna comes in three grades: solid or fancy, chunk and flaked.

Albacore tuna, which is the whitest meat tuna and the most expensive, is a solid or fancy grade. It has a mild flavor, is rich in Omega-3 nutrients, which have been identified as being important in a heart-healthy diet, and is usually packed in water rather than oil.

Albacore tuna is suitable for salads, pasta combos and sandwiches.

The second grade of canned tuna and the largest-selling grade is the chunk. Chunk tuna, also referred to as light meat tuna, is from skipjack and yellowfin tuna. It is mild-tasting, but it has more flavor than albacore tuna. It is also darker than albacore tuna.

The chunk tuna is flakier than solid-packed albacore tuna. Chunk tuna mixes quickly and easily with other ingredients.

If you are planning to make a tuna casserole or you like a smooth-textured tuna salad almost like a pate, use a chunk tuna. The meat is going to be broken up, so why spend more for the solid albacore?

Flaked tuna is just what it says, bits and pieces of tuna fish. The flaked tuna is generally darker and stronger-tasting.

Canned tuna is a low-fat, high-protein food. A 2-ounce serving has 60 to 70 calories if packed in water or 90 to 110 calories if packed in oil.

According to “The Food Lover’s Tiptionary” by Sharon Tyler Herbst, “Canned tuna can be stored, unopened, in a cool place for several years, providing the cans are intact. Once opened, refrigerate and use within two days.”

The (Baton Rouge, La.) Advocate Food staff invited readers to send in their favorite canned-tuna recipes. We didn’t get many recipes. It could be that few people use a recipe when making their canned tuna delights.

But we think everyone will like the featured Dijon mustard-flavored Tuna Melt so much they’ll want to make this open-faced sandwich, with its mayonnaise-based remoulade sauce, even when budgets are not tight.

Here are the recipes:

Tuna Melt

Recipe adapted from Nancy Silverton, chef of Campanile Restaurant, Los Angeles

For the remoulade:

6 tablespoons mayonnaise

1 tablespoon Dijon mustard

1 tablespoon finely chopped red onion

1 teaspoon capers, rinsed well and finely chopped

2 teaspoons finely chopped cornichons or other gherkin-style pickles

1 teaspoon finely chopped fresh tarragon leaves

2 teaspoons finely chopped fresh Italian parsley leaves

1/2 teaspoon freshly squeezed lemon juice

For sandwich:

12 ounces canned tuna, drained

4 slices white, whole-wheat, sourdough or pumpernickel bread

4 ounces white Cheddar cheese, grated

To make the remoulade: In a medium-size bowl, mix together mayonnaise, Dijon mustard, onion, capers, cornichons, tarragon, parsley and lemon juice.

Place drained tuna in a medium-size bowl; using your fingers, flake it into large chunks. Add remoulade and mix to combine.

Preheat broiler. Toast slices of bread until lightly browned.

Divide tuna into 4 portions and pile each portion unevenly over the bread. Scatter 1 ounce of cheese unevenly over center of each bread.

Heat under the broiler for about 30 seconds or until cheese is melted.

Yield: 4 open-faced sandwiches.

Approximate nutrition per serving: Unable to calculate.

“This open-face sandwich was served by a 1956 neighbor, the late Mary Love Thetford. It was a ‘must have’ recipe and I have used it many times — almost 50 years.”

Hot Open-Faced Tuna Fish Sandwich

12-ounce can chunk light tuna fish

2 hard-cooked eggs

1/2 cup mayonnaise

Salt and pepper to taste

6 slices bread

6 slices American cheese

Drain tuna fish well, mash hard-cooked eggs or chop fine, add mayonnaise, salt and pepper.

On cookie sheet, place 6 slices of bread. Toast under broiler until brown. Remove from oven and heat oven to 350 degrees.

Turn toast over (unbrowned side) and spread tuna fish mixture on top. Place slice of cheese on top. Bake 8 to 10 minutes or until cheese is melted.

Yield: 6 servings

Approximate nutrition per serving: 372 calories, 24.6 grams fat, (7.7 grams saturated, 60 percent fat calories), 23.9 grams protein, 13.4 grams carbohydrate, 120.8 milligrams cholesterol, 1.9 grams dietary fiber, 760 milligrams sodium.

Tuna Tortilla Roll-Ups

Recipe from French’s Original French Fried Onions

10 3/4 -ounce can condensed cream of celery soup

1 cup milk

9 1/4 -ounce can tuna, drained and flaked

10-ounce package frozen broccoli spears, thawed, drained and cut into 1-inch pieces

1 cup (4 ounces) shredded Cheddar cheese

1 1/2 cups canned French-fried onions, divided

Six 7-inch flour or corn tortillas

1 medium tomato, chopped

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

In a small bowl, combine soup and milk; set aside.

In a medium bowl, combine tuna, broccoli, 1/2 cup cheese and 3/4 cup French-fried onions; stir in 3/4 cup soup mixture.

Divide tuna mixture evenly among tortillas; roll up tortillas. Place tortillas, seam-side down, in lightly greased 9-by-13-inch baking dish. Stir tomato into remaining soup mixture; pour down center of roll-ups.

Bake, covered, 35 minutes or until heated through. Top center of roll-ups with remaining cheese and onions; bake, uncovered, 5 minutes or until onions are golden brown.

Yield: 6 servings

Approximate nutrition per serving: Unable to calculate.

Creamed Tuna

1/4 cup chopped green onions (more if desired)

1 or 2 tablespoons margarine

12-ounce can tuna, drained

10 3/4 -ounce can cream of mushroom soup

1/4 cup milk (this is used to thin soup)

1 small or larger can mushroom pieces

1/4 cup shredded sharp Cheddar cheese, optional

4 slices toasted bread

Saute green onions in the margarine. Place tuna, soup, milk and mushrooms in a double boiler pot. Add mixture of sautéed green onions. Heat well. Serve on top of toast, hot! Garnish with shredded cheese (optional).

Yield: 4 servings

Approximate nutrition per serving (with optional Cheddar cheese): 305 calories, 11.9 grams fat (3.2 grams saturated, 35 percent fat calories), 28.8 grams protein, 21 grams carbohydrate, 30.6 milligrams cholesterol, 2.8 grams dietary fiber, 1,141 milligrams sodium.