This quick and easy recipe for tuna salad with Tuscan white beans is adapted from one I sampled at a fabulous EVOO cooking class at Boston’s Action Kitchen in the Seaport Hotel. It can be served on crostini as an appetizer. It is lovely atop a leaf of fresh radicchio. It can also top a simple green salad. I often serve it in a small wooden bowl with a cheese board. But I usually prefer it as a healthy dish all by itself.

Tuscan Tuna Salad
Ingredients
- 2 5-oz cans chunk light tuna, packed in water Starkist is my go-to brand, but I buy whatever's on sale.
- 1 15.5-oz can cannellini beans
- 1 tbsp capers
- 1/2 fennel bulb, cored, sliced thin
- 1/2 med. orange bell pepper, diced small
- 1 tbsp red onion, diced small
- 1 clove garlic, minced
- juice of 1/2 lemon
- 1 tsp cider vinegar
- splash red wine
- dash Tabasco
- 1/4 c EVOO Bellucci is my go-to brand; use your favorite mid-level EVOO
- 1 tbsp honey mustard
- 1 tbsp fresh basil, torn in small bits
- paprika
- S/P to taste
Instructions
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Drain and rinse beans in colander. Add tuna and drain. Add capers and drain. Leave aside in sink.
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In med. bowl, mix fennel, bell pepper, onion, and garlic. Add tuna mixture and blend well. Add EVOO, lemon juice, vinegar, wine, Tabasco, and mustard and blend thoroughly. Fold in basil. Dust with paprika.
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Refrigerate at least 30 min. before serving. Can be prepared one day ahead.
I fell in love with travel on a trip to Mexico when I was nine years old. Since then, I’ve travelled the globe from Israel to El Salvador. I’ve skied the Swiss Alps and hiked national parks like Acadia, Zion, Shenandoah, and Virgin Islands. I’ve marvelled at masterpieces in the Prado, the Uffizi, the Huntington, and the National Gallery of Art. I’ve stayed in a cabin on a mountaintop in Norway and on a kibbutz along the Sea of Galilee, and been kicked out of the Ritz at the Place Vendôme. I’ve taken cooking classes from New England to the Caribbean, and watched a chef prepare traditional shakshuka in the kitchen of his restaurant in Tel Aviv. I weave historical research and my personal experiences together in writing this blog. I hope you find it helpful. Read more …