My husband and I consider ourselves decently sophisticated people. We've traveled and lived abroad, we subscribe to 3 newspapers, we even have a couch upholstered in fabric available only to the the trade (and one of us knows what that means).
That said, my family does not have very fancy food tastes. I know it's terribly unposh to admit it, but our favorite foods are things like spaghetti and meatballs, macaroni and cheese, roasted chicken, lasagna, beef stew, cheeseburgers, grilled seafood, pasta salad...you get the picture. My eyes tend to glaze over if I read a recipe that contains an ingredient followed by the words "you can find this at your local _____ market" (e.g., Asian market, specialty foods market, etc. - trust me, if it isn't "farmer's market," I'm not going to find it in Savannah).
And so I share with you my summertime equivalent of tuna noodle casserole. There's nothing fancy or foodie about it, but on a hot summer day at the beach there's nothing better than pulling this out of the cooler along with fresh strawberries, blueberries, and an ice cold diet coke. If I'm serving it at home for dinner I put it on top of mixed salad greens and serve with sliced tomatoes.
Tuna Pasta Salad (serves 6-8)
1 16 oz box of sea shell shaped pasta, cooked and drained (note - salt your cooking water well so that you don't have to add salt to the salad later)
5 cans tuna (if I wanted to annoy my mother, I would write "5 cans tuna fish," but since yesterday was Mother's Day, I'll restrain myself), drained
6 hard boiled eggs, diced
8-10 celery stalks, halved length-wise and diced
1.5 cups Hellman's mayonnaise (for my West Coast readers, it's Best Mayonnaise)
Combine tuna, eggs, celery, and 1/2 cup mayonnaise. Mix well. Add pasta and remaining mayonnaise, mix well. Serve chilled.
Could not be simpler, and so good.
Dinner tonight: chicken breasts with goat cheese and basil, salad. Happy eating!
