Stanley Tucci’s Simple High-Protein Lunch Recipe

I’ll eat just about anything Stanley Tucci tells me to. The Tooch, as we call him in my house, is the reason I stood in an hours-long line on a recent trip to Florence to try lampredotto—a Florentine street food featured on Tucci in Italy made from the fourth stomach of a cow. I also credit Tucci with teaching me to make one of my favorite pastas, a simple zucchini-based dish called Spaghetti alla Nerano. The Conclave star has never led me astray when it comes to delicious Italian dishes, so when I saw his latest Instagram post sharing one of his favorite simple, protein-packed lunches, I was all ears.

Tucci posted a clip on Instagram this week showing what he made for lunch during a break from packing for his upcoming work trip for The Devil Wears Prada sequel. 

“I made myself a little lunch and that lunch consists of a tomato sauce with tuna,” he says in the video. “I coupled it with some cannellini beans with onions and a little bit of garlic. That’s all together and has some twice-baked bread—so it’s crusty, hard, hard bread that softens up once it’s in there—and that’s it. It has some fresh basil in it and some olive oil drizzled on top with salt and pepper. It’s really good and really hearty.”

In the post, Tucci mentions he’s pretty sure he’s shared the recipe for his tuna tomato sauce on Instagram in the past, and he’s right. A few months ago, he shared the recipe with followers, explaining exactly how to make it. To start, cook some diced onion in a sauce pan until translucent, then stir in some minced garlic and heat through. Add in some high-quality canned tomatoes—San Marzano crushed tomatoes would work well here—and cook for about 20 minutes, then add some drained, canned tuna fish and cook the whole mixture for another 10 minutes. Stir in some fresh basil right at the end for a boost of flavor.

“I know it might sound gross—it isn’t,” Tucci says of adding canned tuna to tomato sauce. “It’s absolutely delicious and what happens is this sauce becomes really, really sweet… it is so delicious.”

In his initial video, Tucci mentions serving the tuna-tomato sauce over spaghetti, but for his recent lunchtime post, he’s serving the sweet, flavorful sauce over cannellini beans with some crusty bread mixed in. Since tomatoes may reduce heart disease risk, prevent cancer, improve skin health and support eye and gut health, we’re fans of any dish that incorporates them.

Add in the fact that eating tuna regularly may help improve eye and heart health and reduce inflammation in the body, and white beans like cannellini beans are a great source of potassium, folate and iron, and we’re sold. What’s more, this dish packs a ton of protein: White beans have about 10 grams of protein per ½-cup serving and a three-ounce serving of tuna has about 20 grams of protein.

I’ve already added this Tucci-approved lunch to my list of things to meal-prep for healthy eating throughout the week. Pre-packaged in high-quality food storage containers, the dish would be perfect for heating and eating during the week when you’re in need of a healthy, high-protein lunch. And, because Tucci made it, there’s no doubt in my mind it’ll taste absolutely delightful.