Arugula Salad With Tuna, Cannellini Beans and Castelvetrano Olives

Arugula Salad with Tuna, Cannellini beans and Castelvetrano olives. What an awesome combination of ingredients. Tuna and beans are already a classic Italian pairing but by adding a few extra ingredients we may have just made your new favourite salad. This is one of my go-to salads to make and good quality tuna is the key to this recipe, so save that other canned tuna for tuna salad sandwiches and go out and buy the good stuff for this salad. Make sure to use Castelvetrano olives, once you try them, you’ll be wanting to use them for everything. Sometimes I add red onion to this salad if I have some around as it pairs well with everything.

ARUGULA SALAD WITH TUNA, CANNELLINI BEANS, CASTELVETRANO OLIVES & PARMIGIANO-REGGIANO

Recipe by: Mark Calaminici | Food Loves Company

Serves 2-4

Ingredients

1 ½ cups cannellini beans, drained and rinsed

1 can of tuna in olive oil, save the oil (Callipo or Rio Mare brand)

½ cup Castelvetrano olives, pitted

4-5 ounces baby arugula, washed

2-3 tbsp of extra virgin olive oil (if not using the oil from the tuna)

Juice of ½ lemon

Salt, to taste

Freshly cracked pepper, to taste

Parmigiano-Reggiano, to taste, finely grated

Method

1. Remove the oil from the can of tuna and place in a separate bowl. If the tuna wasn’t packed in good quality oil or you just prefer not to use it, replace with 2 tbsp of extra virgin olive oil. In a large bowl, add the beans, tuna and olives. Mix to incorporate everything and set aside.

2. In a large bowl add the arugula, the olive oil from the tuna or fresh oil, lemon juice and season with salt and freshly cracked pepper. Toss to dress the salad. You can then add the tuna, beans and olives to the arugula and then toss everything together and finish with as much Parmigiano-Reggiano as you like. Alternatively, you can plate by placing the arugula on a large plate and then top with the cannellini beans, tuna Castelvetrano olives mixture on top of the bed of a arugula in the middle and finish with as much Parmigiano-Reggiano as you like. Enjoy!

Until next time, ciao!