The triumphant return

I have been shamed into shedding my lameness and posting another recipe. It’s a day late, so let’s call it

Dollar short pasta salad

Hot-weather food. Pasta. Olive oil. Tuna. Crunchy vegetables. It’s what’s it, baby.

Don’t be afraid to vegetarianize this by leaving out the tuna—just substitute something else with a little salt and a little chew, like this stuff for example. Don’t fear the tempeh, omnivores: it’s good.

If you do use tuna, I strongly recommend starkist albacore in the pouch. Unlike essentially all other tuna that isn’t packed in olive oil in Europe somewhere and sold here for extortionate prices, if you can even find it, it does not taste like tin can.

Ingredients

1. 1 pound shaped pasta
2. 7 oz tuna (or substitute), flaked (or diced and quickly fried, for the tempeh strips)
3. 1/2 red onion, diced very small
4. 1 red bell pepper, diced
5. 1/2 small red hot pepper, seeded and minced
6. olive oil—GOOD olive oil
7. juice of 1 lemon
8. 1 tbsp balsamic vinegar (a reasonable fake kind is ok)
9. salt
10. black pepper

Procedure

1. Cook the pasta. But first, salt the water. A lot. Drain the pasta, run cold water over it to stop cooking, and toss in a very large bowl with a few substantial glugs of olive oil.
2. Let the pasta cool in the fridge for 1/2 hour or so. This is a good time to do all of the chopping and juicing and flaking.
3. Add the tuna (or substitute), lemon juice, half of the balsamic, and the onion and peppers, and mix well. Taste. It will be a little more tart right now than when you’re done, don’t worry about it. Add salt and pepper, slowly, until it shakes off that dull, undersalted feeling.
4. Just before serving—when you have the serving spoon in your hand, or at least, out of the drawer—add the rest of the balsamic and another shot of oil, and mix well.

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