Recipe #7: canned tuna Caesar salad, quickie version

 I honestly thought I had invented this recipe because it fell into the category, to my mind, of “who else but me would eat this?” (See recipe #1 as well)

A quick internet search proves me wrong. The World Wide Web of food blogs is positively silly with versions and variations of this exact dish.

I’m going to allow it here because (a) I thought I had invented it, which is philosophically equivalent, if not actually equivalent, to my having invented it and (b) it’s my recipe blog and I can break my own rules. Also, my blog has no ads, no affiliate links, no professional photography of myself looking fabulous to distract the reader, and no readers. So let’s get on with it.

Ingredients:

Note that I am using gluten free bread, which is optional but not necessary unless you, too, have a medical reason to do so. You can obviously also use prepackaged pre-made croutons, making this dish even quicker and easier.

Note also that I am using canned tuna in olive oil. This is also completely optional. But given the high cost of olive oil these days, getting some free olive oil in your canned fish is a win.

Final note: you will see that I still have some Renées Mighty Caesar dressing on the go, so I’m going to use it. I usually make my own fake and easy Caesar dressing and we’ll get to that in a future post.

Directions:

Make easy homemade croutons by drizzling olive oil on your slice of bread, cutting it into cubes, and gently toasting it.

Here is the pre-toast picture above.

Below we have the perfectly toasted homemade croutons:

Next, wash and dry your romaine lettuce leaves thoroughly and chop into your salad bowl.

Add your croutons, your canned tuna (well drained if water packed, not drained if packed in valuable olive oil)(in fact, if I had been thinking straight, I could have used the tuna oil to make my croutons, for a frugal use of the oil, and extra fishy flavour of the croutons. Hopefully it’s not too late for you to do this!)(I once had a high school English teacher reprimand me for using the word “hopefully” this way, and although I have never forgotten it, and the sting of that criticism, I continue to abuse and misuse the word unabashedly.)

Where were we? Sorry if you got lost in parentheses.

Add everything to the bowl with a big glob of Renées dressing:

Not too big, mind you. Especially if you added tuna can oil, which will enhance the dressing. You don’t want it overdressed! You can always add more, but you can’t remove it if you’ve already added too much.

Mix it all up, and it’s ready to eat!

I’ve added grated weird Parmesan cheese we bought from a regional dairy that is too young (the Parmesan is too young, not the dairy, although if the dairy is old enough, its owners should know better than to sell such young Parmesan cheese!) and fresh to be proper Parmesan, and tastes a bit cow-y, but it must be used up. 

Delicious!