Tuna Tarragon Pasta Salad

Mercy's Note:

My husband and I love the unique flavor of the tuna pasta salad at our local Sweet Tomatoes restaurant. The natural sweetness from the tarragon blends beautifully with the mild tuna. I developed this recipe at home and it comes really close to real thing...maybe even surpassing it. The restaurant chain uses a mixed pasta consisting of broken spinach fettucini, broken regular fettucini and sea shells, but I don't usually keep all those pastas on-hand. I also took the liberty of adding peas (I just love peas and tuna together).

• Total Time: 30 mins
• Prep Time: 15 mins
• Cook Time: 15 mins

Ingredients:

Servings: 6

DRESSING

• 1 cup mayonnaise or 1 cup salad dressing
• 1/2 cup sour cream
• 1 tablespoon lemon juice or 1 tablespoon vinegar
• 1 tablespoon dried tarragon
• 1 tablespoon dijon-style mustard
• 1 teaspoon sugar (1 to 2 teaspoons, to taste)

SALAD

• 2 (12 ounce) cans tuna in water, drained (or albacore)
• 2 cups frozen green peas, no need to thaw
• 1 lb shell pasta, cooked to al dente, drained and cooled
• 1/4 teaspoon salt (to taste)
• 1/8 teaspoon pepper (to taste)

Directions:

1. Whisk together the first six (dressing) ingredients.
2. Fold in the tuna and peas.
3. Toss in the pasta.
4. Season with salt and pepper, to taste.
5. Chill at least two hours before serving.
6. The pasta will absorb the dressing, the flavors will blend and the dried tarragon flavor will really blossom.

Reviews

[Chef #682301]

This was pretty good! I didn't have enough mayo, so I put about a half a cup. Didn't use sour cream at all. It was sufficiently creamy! I also added some sweet pickle relish, and used multigrain spiral pasta instead of shells. I skipped the sugar, since I figured the relish would be sweet enough. This was a very pleasant recipe - thanks!

[mailbelle]

I love tarragon! I left out the peas in this because I don't care for peas, but it tasted a little bland. Added some sweet pickle relish, and the sweetness of the relish brought out the sweetness of the tarragon. Thanks for posting! Made for 2008 All New Zaar Cookbooks Tag.

[Chef #888751]

My first review for this website...I really like this recipe. It is exactly what I love about the Sweet Tomatoes dish. I happen to have tarragon growing in my herb garden, so I chopped up probably 3 TBSP fresh tarragon for this salad today. I served it to my quilting group of 15 and they all swooned and wanted the recipe. I used Bumble Bee white tuna so it wasn't a strong fishy taste. Thanks for a great recipe.