Easy Spicy Mackarel Pasta

Smiling fish canned fried mackarels in chilli sauce.

They remind me of my young college days...when we stayed in a all (hot) girls dorm (cough cough), and we're only allowed very minimum cooking, this was one of our staples along with endless supply of instant noodles.

The fish chunks taste amaaaazing simply heated and eaten with steamed rice...taste especially yummier when we were hungry and budget was extremely limited (one too many trips to the mall, which led to too many cute outfits, no more money for food and it's the end of the month).

My canned food and I, we're good friends.

I wonder if it would work for a quick and easy Asian inspired pasta dinner.

Recipe
(for two)
- pasta of your choice (I like fusili)
- 2 cans of fried mackarels in chilli sauce
- 2 cloves of garlic, minced
- 3 cloves of shallot, sliced thinly
- 1 cm ginger, crushed
- a bit of lemon juice
- freshly chopped corriander
- light soy sauce, fish sauce, olive oil

Cook pasta according to instructions on the packet. Open the cans of mackarels, break down the fish meat into bite sized chunks (I removed the soft larger bones from the middle of the fish), reserve the chilli sauce. Saute garlic, shallot and ginger in a bit of olive oil until fragrant, add fish chunks, add the chilli sauce (please add bit by bit as you taste as it might be too hot) from the can, heat through, add light soy and fish sauce to balance the sweetness of the chilli sauce. Drain pasta and add to the fish, mix well, taste and adjust flavors if necessary, squeeze some lemon juice and garnish with freshly chopped corriander.

Hot, spicy, sweet, sour, savory, satisfying...and reminds me of my young golden days ;p

Sharing this with the folks at Presto Pasta Nights (oh gosh, it's been a while), created by Ruth, hosted this week by Daphne of More Than Words.