Ingredients
Serves 6-8
4 eggs
1.5 – 2 cups of spiral pasta (I use whole grain)
400g / 3 healthy handfuls – of green beans
2 garlic cloves
1 full jar of pitted green olives
3-4 pickled jalapeno peppers or pickled piment basques (both optional)
1 bunch of dill
½ of a bunch of parsley (leaves taken off stem)
½ cup of olive oil
1 juicy lemon
2 jars of good quality tuna fish in olive oil
Food Processor
Preparation
1- Boil your eggs. Bring a medium pot of water to boil and lower your eggs in mindfully, turn down the water so it’s not a rolling boil and your shells break. Boil for 10 minutes. Once you take them out you can let them cool or drop them into an ice bath for quicker peeling.
2- Simultaneously cook your pasta in salted water. Prepare an ice bath on the side to drop your pasta in once it’s cooked in order to cool it down and stop the cooking.
3- While the eggs & pasta are cooking, prepare your green beans. Take the stems off and rinse them. To cook, you can either reuse your pasta water by adding more salt OR start with fresh water. Make sure your water is more salty than pasta water because your beans will be in the water less time and have tough, fibrous skin, making it harder for salt to penetrate. Taste your beans for your preferred crunchiness. I boil mine between 5-6 minutes.
4- Make your dressing. Start by blitzing, in your food processor your garlic. Add in your olives, pickled jalapeno or piment basque, dill, parsley, olive oil and 1/2 of lemon’s juice to start. Blitz away and taste. Use olive oil to adjust the consistency of dressing. Add salt if you think you need it. Add more lemon if you need more acid. I use a good amount of the olive oil from the tuna jars.
5- Assemble your salad. I like to do it by layer and mix as I go. Green beans, pasta, dressing, mix. Repeat. Then add your tuna and break up your eggs into the salad for final mixing. Enjoy!
Step 1
Gather ingredients. Eggs, spiral pasta, green beans, garlic, green olives, peppers, dill, parsley, olive oil, fresh lemon and good quality tuna in olive oil.
Start by boiling your eggs for 10 minutes and allow them to cool.
Heat a pot of salted water for your pasta and prepare an ice bath for your pasta.
If you pull out your pasta like so and put it in your ice bath, you can reuse the same water to cook your green beans.
Allow your pasta to cool slightly in your ice bath and then transfer them to a colander to drip dry.
Bring your pot of water to boil and salt it more than pasta water too cook your beans in. I like a 5-6 minute cook but you must try the bean to find your ideal crunch preference.
Allow your beans to sit in their ice bath for at least 10 minutes to cool.
Allow your beans to cool for 5-10 minutes, drain them and dry them in a clean towel. You don't want any excess water on them as it will dilute your salad.
While your beans are cooking and cool, make your dressing. Start by blitzing your garlic.
De stem your dill. I recommend taking off your parsley leaves for better blitzing.
Add in your dill, parsley, pitted olives, peppers, olive oil, 1/2 lemon juice to start.
You can see here that the parsley stems have a hard time being broken down. It's better to de stem your parsley.
Adjust your dressing to your liking by adding in more olive, salt, olive oil from the tuna jar or lemon for acidity. Keep tasting until you are satisfied.
Peel your eggs and collect all your ingredients to assemble your salad.
I like to start by layoring in my green beans, pasta, dressing and then mixing gently by turning your ingredients onto eachother.
Keep layoring and mixing until it's mostly incorporated. I use the olive oil from the tuna jar if I feel it needs some more oil.
Finally, break up your tuna fish into medium & large chunks along with your eggs.
Give it a gentle mix and you are good to go serve her up!
I found this salad on Molly Baz’s youtube channel. It’s flavorful, really simple to make and can feed a crowd. It’s perfect for a picnic, a buffet at home or even as a main course for a simple family lunch. I have adjusted her quantities to suit my palette but not by much, lemon juice, more olive oil and a bit more tuna.
In her youtube video she takes you through this process where the boiled ingredients are timed out so that you use only one pot. My brain type doesn’t cooperate with this style but it can be super interesting for some. Have a look here if you want to see her timed process.
One note, Molly uses Castelvetrano olives in her recipe but in France these are not common to find (none the less, pitted!) so I have always used pitted green olives.
If you do find pitted Castelbetrano I would definitely use those as they are delicious.
Enjoy!
