Instructions: Drain tuna. Combine tuna with 1 cup shredded cheese, chiles, onion, and cumin. Warm enchilada sauce. Pour 1/2 cup sauce in bottom of 2-quart shallow casserole dish. Spoon equal amounts of tuna mixture into each tortilla. Fold sides to overlap. Turn seam-side down in casserole dish.

Pour remaining sauce over enchiladas. Top with remaining cheese. Bake in 375 degree oven 10 minutes. Spoon sauce over enchiladas. Bake 10 to 15 minutes longer.

This recipe yields 4 servings.

Gilding The Lily: The technique here is hardly rigorous, but you might simplify things even more by merely layering the ingredients to produce a lasagna-like dish. There are hotter and milder enchilada sauces, letting you regulate the heat to your taste; using jalapeno Monterey Jack would also add more fire, if desired.

Comments: With the appearance of this recipe on the back of Bumble Bee tuna cans, the conquest of bland America by the zesty army of the Southwest seems complete. Where tuna noodle casserole, creamy and white, was once the symbol of the national weekday suppertime What To Eat, now moms have alternatives like this lively, chile-spiked original. Almost as easy to make and every bit as satisfying but light years more interesting that that other casserole, it is a savory, vivid, and welcome sign of changing times.

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