Here’s what’s in this comfort food classic: For the Béchamel Cream Sauce: I also replaced Chef Peel’s tuna confit with canned tuna from my pantry but I did keep his crispy topping. Then, because his casserole was on the plain side, I gussied it up with my mom’s addition of olives and peas. In this recipe, I replaced the canned soup called for in my mom’s version to make a tuna noodle casserole from scratch with Chef Peel’s béchamel sauce from his recipe. And the crunchy bread crumb topping is the perfect compliment to the creamy, cheesy noodles.Ī mix and match affair, this is how I used both of their noodles to create my own easy, homemade tuna noodle casserole from scratch.The sliced olives give a pickled spunk to each bite.There’s no canned soup! Instead, this homemade sauce makes a noodle casserole that’s lush and silky instead of clumpy and goopy.Here’s what I like best about this recipe:

I may not live in Los Angeles anymore, but I can still eat like I do. So when she told me she was whipping up a tuna noodle casserole to cure my dad’s cravings, I was happy to hear she hadn’t completely given up her cooking chops yet.įor this tuna noodle casserole recipe, I took inspo from my mama’s recipe and combined it with a recipe from the New Classic Family Dinners cookbook by the chef of Los Angeles’s storied Campanile restaurant. But my mom does still have a handful of recipes up her culinary sleeve. Being retired and with nobody at home but her and my dad, it’s easier for them to go out on lunch date or dinner rather than cook a big meal for two. My mom has given up cooking and I can appreciate why. Home cooked comfort is what the best classic tuna noodle casserole is all about, and this one tastes even better thanks to pantry staples and a super simple from scratch sauce.

How to make a cheese sauce from scratch