tuna rottele pasta Niçoise

This salad is a take on Niçoise salad. I bought an expensive jar of tuna chunks packed in extra virgin olive oil and herbs the other day at “whole paycheck” in our hood. At home we had beautiful fresh organic heirloom carrots (Nantes, maybe?), French green beans, Dijon mustard you get the picture right? So we had another Mediterranean style meal in our lives! Woohoo!!! It tasted scrumptious.

tuna rottele pasta Niçoise

Pasta salad:

½ box of rottele
½ lb fresh haricots verts
1 heirloom tomato, quartered
4 small to medium carrots, peeled and quartered into long strips
10 kalamata or Niçoise olives, pitted and halved
1 pickled artichoke heart, cut into bite sized pieces
4 sprigs parsley, roughly chopped
3 tbsp fresh oregano leaves
1 jar of good quality tuna chunks packed in olive oil

Dressing:

1 clove garlic, crushed
2 tbsp olive oil
2 tbsp olive oil from tuna jar
1 tbsp water
¼ tsp sugar
½ anchovy fillet, rinsed in running water and minced fine
2 tsp Dijon mustard
Salt and pepper to taste

To make the dressing:

Place all ingredients in a jar, close the lid and give a vigorous shake. The dressing will emulsify. Add a bit more olive oil and shake again if dressing is not thick enough. Adjust flavors if necessary.

To prepare dish:

Cook pasta, al dente, per package instructions. Towards the last 4 minutes of cooking add raw sliced carrot and haricots verts. Drain, and transfer to a serving bowl and allow to cool a bit. Add 1/3 of dressing to pasta then toss well. Decorate the top of the pasta with remaining ingredients and drizzle with more dressing.

This dish is healthy, refreshing and nutritious. You get a good dose of protein, complex carbs, and omega 3 fats and so on.

Left over dressing will keep for about 5 days in the fridge.