Our daughter Alix used to call me for recipes; now I often call her. One of her favorite dishes is this easy and inexpensive tuna and tomato dish baked on a sheet of puff pastry and topped with cheese and herbs.
I guess you could call it a very distant cousin to pizza. She learned to make it a few years ago while teaching English to elementary schoolchildren on the west coast of France. She shuttled between six village schools and in winter often arrived back at her apartment cold and damp from the frequent rain and chilly winds off the Atlantic Ocean.
This dish made a quick, warm and cheap supper for her. She made it for us when we visited her. I loved it and took the recipe home. It proved to be nice in summer as well.
Puff pastry sheets may not sound like a low-priced ingredient, but they are quite economical. They come two to a box, so you can thaw one and leave the other for another time. Be sure to allow plenty of time for the pastry sheet to thaw, or it won't puff up into the gloriously crunchy layers. You could use one can of tuna instead of two, but it would be pretty skimpy. Leftover cooked chicken or canned salmon could be substituted. Add a vegetable and salad for a complete meal.
Anne Gillespie Lewis is a Minneapolis writer.
Have recipes or thrifty tips to share? Send them to thethriftycook@gmail.com, or by mail to Taste/ Thrifty, Star Tribune, 425 Portland Av. S., Minneapolis, MN 55488.
