Tuna Tarragon Pasta Salad

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).

• Ready In: 30 mins
• Serves: 6

Ingredients

• 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.