Spanish Tuna Salad

Thursday 20 August

Back when Barbara was on excavation in Mallorca, the lunch place would occasionally serve tuna salad.  Unlike our American mayonnaise version, it was simply made of crisp lettuce, a couple of wedges of tomato, lots of sliced sweet onion, and big chunks of oil-soaked canned tuna, dressed with good olive oil and vinegar.  That Spanish simplicity was our ideal for this evening.

We drained the water from a can of chunky tuna for Dora's benefit (Lea used to call Dora "the grey streak" whenever a tuna can opened), and poured in good olive oil to soak in.  But as well as red onion and red and yellow tomatoes, we threw in garden arugula, New Zealand spinach, whatever resprouted lettuce we could find, a chopped Zephyr squash, plus Kalamata olives and artichoke hearts, and tossed with vigor.  Okay, we slutted it up - we are American, after all.

On a crisp evening, it made a perfect outdoor summer meal.