After a few trips to Italy, I DESPERATELY tried to make this beautiful tuna white bean salad that I had at an oceanside café. A few failed attempts later (of overcomplicating things!), I succeeded in recreating this fabulous Italian dish! Simple, clean, lemony, and ever-so summery: crisp Bibb lettuce, tender white beans, chunks of good-quality tuna, and the sharpness of fennel and onion. It’s a “don’t miss” summer dish of Italy.
Go all out and listen to “Evening in Roma” as you enjoy a little slice of Italian paradise in your own backyard! Impress even the toughest Italian food critics.
Makes: two portions
The Ingredients
2 heads Bibb lettuce, separated and washed
1 fennel bulb, cored
1/2 Vidalia onion (sweet onion)
1 can cannellini beans, drained and rinsed
2 jars tuna in olive oil (high quality tuna here is SO important! I recommend “Tonnino Tuna Ventresca in Olive Oil”)
1 lemon
Extra virgin olive oil to drizzle
Salt and pepper to taste
The Steps
On two dinner-sized plates, make a one-layered bed of Bibb lettuce.
Take the fennel bulb and make thin slices using a mandolin. Evenly spread slices from bulb to each plate.
Take your 1/2 Vidalia onion, and cut into paper-thin slices. Spread onion slices on two plates evenly.
Add drained and rinsed Cannellini beans to plates (1/2 can per plate).
Take tuna, drained, and break up in slightly smaller chunks in the center of each plate.
Squeeze 1/2 lemon evenly over each plate. Beware of seeds!
Generously drizzle olive oil over each plate.
Sprinkle with salt and pepper (I personally like quite a bit of pepper on this!).
Let the tastes of Italy fill your soul!
The Steps with Pictures
On two dinner-sized plates, make a one-layered bed of Bibb lettuce.
Take the fennel bulb and make thin slices using a mandolin. Evenly spread slices from bulb to each plate.
Take your 1/2 Vidalia onion, and cut into paper-thin slices. Spread onion slices on two plates evenly.
Add drained and rinsed Cannellini beans to plates (1/2 can per plate).
Take tuna, drained, and break up in slightly smaller chunks in the center of each plate.
Squeeze 1/2 lemon evenly over each plate. Beware of seeds!
Generously drizzle olive oil over each plate.
Sprinkle with salt and pepper (I personally like quite a bit of pepper on this!).
Let the tastes of Italy fill your soul!
