Retro Salad with Tuna Mayo and Other Good Bits

This started out as my attempt to make something healthy for dinner to make up for not visiting the gym yesterday after eating chorizo corn dogs for lunch (more on that later).  Sadly, after I took a bite of my good canned tuna procured from Sunflower Market, I remembered something about tuna mayonnaise.  Last week I was listening to my Good Food podcast from KCRW (you should, too) and they were talking about tuna mayo; then at dinner on Sunday, Husband mentioned that when he was in Italy, he was served raw veal with tuna mayo over, and my willpower was gone.  I brought out the trusty Silver Spoon Cookbook and got to work.  Their version was really more of a tuna sauce, which was in line with what I wanted to do since I wanted to be able to dress my salad with it and didn't feel like actually going through the process of making mayo from scratch (oh but I will, one day).  My recipe is an interpretation of theirs (read: I didn't measure anything and adding Tabasco).

Once the salad was assembled, I laughed at how it looked like something out of this fantastically old copy of The Good Housekeeping Illustrated Cookbook I have kicking about (from 1980).  This cookbook has recipes for eggs in aspic and cherries jubilee - things I have never actually seen in the flesh, only in old cookbooks.

But the salad was tasty nonetheless, and I think my tuna mayo will be really good on sandwiches later today, after I hit the gym, of course. 

Resist the urge to skip the anchovies - they're delicious, you just might not know it yet.  Once chopped and pureed, you won't even be able to distinguish them other than to note your concoction tastes especially savory and delicious, thanks to them.

Retro Salad with Tuna, etc. - Serves 1

for the dressing - makes roughly 1/2 cup
1/2 can good quality tuna packed in olive oil (no substitutions!! No water-packed tuna ever!!)
yolk from one hard cooked egg
3 tbsp good mayo (I like Kewpee brand, from the Asian grocery store.  It has MSG)
5 anchovy fillets, finely chopped if they seem especially "hairy"
1 tbsp capers
1 tsp lemon juice
1 tbsp good extra virgin olive oil
4-5 dashes Tabasco
1 tsp dijon mustard
salt and freshly cracked black pepper

Place ingredients in bowl of a food processor and process until smooth, or place in a bowl and puree with a stick blender, as I did.  Don't use a lot of salt, as you have a few salty ingredients in already; taste and adjust seasoning as necessary.  Remove 2 TBSP of the mixture and set aside.  I wouldn't keep this mixture in the fridge longer than 2 days; fortunately, it's really tasty, and I think you'll find using it up won't be a problem.

For the salad:
1 handful of nice red leaf lettuce or whatever you like; I received red and green leaf lettuce in my CSA this week, so used that
1 handful arugula
1/2 can good tuna (see note above)
10 olives, pitted and roughly chopped*
1 hard cooked egg, sliced (really good ones, from my CSA - YUM!)
1/4 red bell pepper, cut into very small dice
good extra virgin olive oil
salt and freshly cracked black pepper

Wash the greens in several changes of water until they are clean and then spin dry.  Place in a large bowl and drizzle lightly with olive oil; add the reserved tuna mayo and toss together; place on a plate.  Arrange the tuna, egg and olives atop the greens in a manner pleasing to the eye and sprinkle with the chopped red peppers.  Sprinkle with salt and pepper.  *A note on the olives - I really like the hot mixed olives from the Mediterranean market in Clintonville, corner of Dodridge & High - they add a nice surprising bit of heat to the mixture, but you can add plain old kalamatas or whatever you like. I served my salad with little premade Melba toasts covered with more tuna mayo and garnished with an anchovy bit and a pepper bit, just because I could; here's an alternative, aerial view: