Tuna & Potato Salad
Tuna & Potato Salad with an Italian twist: capers, olives, garlic, lemon and optional anchovies. Full of gutsy flavour, plus filling ingredients like potatoes and hard-boiled eggs, you’ll find this a tasty and satisfying salad.
Enjoy on its own or as one of several dishes, antipasti style. I like it as a main meal salad too: serve on a bed of simple, fresh veggies like lettuce, cucumber and tomatoes.
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ITALIAN TUNA & POTATO SALAD
There are so many different versions of Italian style Tuna & Potato Salad. The simplest have just potatoes, tinned tuna, olive oil and lemon. Others I’ve seen include tomatoes, green beans, white beans, asparagus, cucumber. However, too many of those additions seem to me to take it over the border into France and niçoise salad.
When I first started making Tuna & Potato Salad, as with so many other Italian inspired dishes, I took as my starting point Claudia Roden’s epic book The Food of Italy. As you can see below, my old copy is rather worn now. But I highly recommend it to anyone interested in Italian food.
Roden’s insalata di tonno e patate consists of potatoes, tinned tuna, hard boiled eggs, capers, anchovies, gherkins, black olives, lemon juice and olive oil.
For me, this seems much more Italian, with echoes of the dressing for my Salsa Verde with Roasted Cauliflower.
MY TUNA & POTATO SALAD
My version includes all Roden’s ingredients (although not necessarily in the same proportions) plus a few additions and tweaks.
- Anchovies: anchovies aren’t dominant in my version, and you can leave them out if you really dislike them.
- Garlic: most recipes for this salad don’t include garlic, but I think it marries perfectly with the rest of the ingredients
- Red onion: like the garlic, it brings flavour but also little nuggets of crunch too
- Celery: another crunchy element and a flavour that’s used in other Italian salads such as caponata
- Herbs: I think almost any salad is more visually appealing with some fresh green herbs. Parsley would be more traditional here, but I sometimes use basil
- Olives: although Italian black olives seem appropriate, I prefer the flavour of purplish Greek kalamata olives
- Lemon: for extra zing, I include the zest as well as the juice
- Eggs: I don’t mix the quartered eggs in with the rest of the ingredients but prefer to add them to the salad later: this prevents the yolks coming loose from the whites
THE TUNA
For the tuna, get a tin that’s packed in oil rather than spring water or brine. To me, spring water makes tuna soggy and insipid. The brined version? Way too salty for almost anything, and certainly for this dish.
Ideally, you want tuna packed in olive oil. However, tuna in sunflower oil is more readily available and cheaper. If you’re happy to pay the extra, go for quality tuna sold in jars. These have a finer flavour, bigger chunks, and a firmer texture but expect to pay twice as much.
THE POTATOES
So that the potatoes don’t fall apart when you mix them with the rest of the ingredients, go for a waxy, new or salad potato. Jersey new potatoes, Charlottes or Maris Peer would all work well.
If you boil rather than steam the potatoes, I recommend leaving the skins on. This prevents them getting waterlogged. I usually take off the skins afterwards, but leave on if you prefer.
MIXING & SERVING
Combining the ingredients while the potatoes are still warm will result in them taking up more of the flavours. You could then serve the Tuna & Potato Salad straight away. But I think it’s best left at room temperature for a little while so that the flavours meld.
If you want to pop it in the fridge to eat later, that’s fine. Just let it come back up to room temperature rather than serving it fridge cold.
You could serve the salad just as it is, or as one of several dishes, antipasti style. But I like it as a main meal salad, balanced with simple, fresh veggies like lettuce, cucumber and tomatoes.
With all the full-flavoured ingredients already on the plate, a little salt, pepper and a drizzle of olive oil is all that’s needed over the salad vegetables. When I have caper berries, I dot some of these about. They look good and are an extra little treat to nibble.
Minus the extra salad vegetables, leftover Tuna & Potato Salad will be fine to eat the next day. I think it would be great in a lunchbox for work or school.
I hope you try this easy salad. If you like gutsy flavours, I think you’ll love it.
Leave a comment below, and don’t forget to rate the recipe!
Tuna & Potato Salad
With the gutsy flavour of capers, olives, garlic, lemon and optional anchovies, plus filling potatoes and hard-boiled eggs, this is a tasty and satisfying salad.
Enjoy on its own, as one of several antipasti dishes, or add fresh veggies like lettuce, cucumber and tomatoes for a main meal salad.
Ingredients
- 350 g waxy, new or salad potatoes e.g. Jerseys, Charlotte, Maris Peer
- salt
- 1 small red onion finely chopped
- 1 stick celery finely chopped
- 40 g pitted black olives e.g. kalamata roughly chopped
- 2 - 3 gherkins roughly chopped
- 4 anchovies in oil (optional) drained, finely chopped
- 1 rounded tbsp capers
- 1 large clove garlic finely chopped
- 1 heaped tbsp chopped parsley or torn basil
- 1 lemon zest and juice
- 3 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
- black pepper to taste
- 1 tin tuna in oil, drained approx 160g after draining
- 2 hardboiled eggs peeled and quartered
To serve (optional)
- lettuce, tomato, cucumber
- 6-8 caper berries
Instructions
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Steam or boil the potatoes with salt to taste until tender (20-25 min).
Meanwhile, prepare the rest of the ingredients.
Drain the potatoes and set aside until cool enough to handle then slip off or scrape away the skin (or leave on if preferred).
Thickly slice or cut into large cubes then set aside.
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Take a large bowl and put in the prepared red onion, celery, olives, gherkins, anchovies if using, the capers, garlic, parsley or basil, the juice and zest of the lemon.
Stir in 2 tablespoons of the extra virgin olive oil and some black pepper to taste.
Add the prepared potatoes to the bowl along with the drained tuna broken into pieces.
Tip: if you want to add the quartered hard-boiled eggs at this point you can or else top the finished salad with them later if you don't want them broken up.
Gently toss everything together then taste and add more pepper and some salt if needed.
The salad is best left for at least 30 minutes for the flavours to meld. Can also be stored for longer in the fridge, but bring back to room temperature before eating.
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Serve, on a bed of lettuce, tomato and cucumber if liked, topped with the egg quarters if you haven't already tossed them with the salad.
Dot with the caper berries if using, drizzle with the remaining tablespoon of olive oil and a grind of black pepper if liked.
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