Marinated Tomatoes with White Beans, Olives and Tuna

This is my go-to tomato salad that I look forward to every year and eat all summer long. With a heavy lean toward Mediterranean and Spanish cuisine, I love this salad that relies on fresh from the garden tomatoes and herbs like tarragon and parsley. And then mixes them with pantry staples like an onion, canned cannellini beans, tuna, olives, capers and vinegar. No shopping list. No runs to the grocery store. Serve it with a piece of thick toasted crusty bread to soak up all that juicy tomato goodness.

Dressing the fresh tomatoes and onions with capers and sherry vinegar and letting them rest in the refrigerator is what makes this tomato salad so darn good. It creates the most wonderful tomatoey dressing to enhance the rest of the ingredients.

While I love panzanella -- bread salad -- it requires eating it pretty much then and there. Serving the toasted bread on the side of the the marinated tomatoes provides the same effect as panzanella without ending up with a tomato salad full of mushy bread. If you don't finish the marinated tomatoes in the first sitting just put the lid on the salad, put it back in the fridge and pull it out tomorrow -- with another slice of toasted bread.

With tuna as the protein, this serves as an easy, no-cook meal. Next time I'm going to serve it with hard-boiled eggs.

Ingredients

• extra-virgin olive oil
• sherry vinegar (substitute white wine or unseasoned rice vinegar)
• capers
• garlic cloves
• mixed tomatoes
• red onion
• cannellini beans
• solid white tuna packed in olive oil
• pitted mixed olives (preferably Castelvetrano and/or kalamata)
• flat-leaf parsley
• tarragon
• salt and pepper
• crusty bread

See recipe card for quantities.

Instructions

Add oil, vinegar, capers, brine, garlic and salt in a medium bowl

Whisk to emulsify.

Add tomatoes and sliced onions.

Mix to combine.

Marinate for 1 to 4 hours covered in the refrigerator.

Add white beans, flaked tuna, olives and toss to combine

Add tarragon and parsley.

Toss together to combine.

Substitutions & Variations

• Additions: Add a cup of diced cucumbers, celery, zucchini or red bell pepper
• Add umami - Dice three anchovies and whisk with the dressing
• Protein - Cut a few hard boiled eggs in half and serve alongside the tomato salad for an extra boost of protein
• Add a little kick - Add five or six sliced pepperoncini and a tablespoon of the brine
• Vinegar - Sherry vinegar is ideal, but substitute it with white wine vinegar or unseasoned rice wine vinegar
• Onions - I love how the marinating process pickles the onions. If you don't have red onion, use shallots or a yellow onion
• Tomatoes - I used heirloom tomatoes but any variety will work. Cut the cherry tomatoes in half.
• Herbs - I think that this is perfect with tarragon, but substitute it with fresh basil which has some of the same anise undertones as tarragon
• Want some bite? Add in two handfuls of arugula
• No cannellini beans? Add in a drained can of garbanzo beans, great northern beans or butter beans
• Check your refrigerator. I have a jarred roasted red pepper that is going to be added to this shortly.
• Cheese? Add a half cup crumbled feta or shaved Parmesan
• Make it a salad. Serve the tomato and white bean salad over a bed of mixed greens -- with hard-boiled eggs.
• Make it gluten free. See right above.
• Make it vegan. Leave out the tuna and add more beans.

Storage

What is great about this tomato and white bean salad is that it will keep in the refrigerator for four days -- and get better every single day.

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Marinated Tomatoes with White Beans, Olives and Tuna

The Savory Tart

Leaning in on Mediterranean and Spanish cuisine, this marinated tomato salad relies on fresh from the garden tomatoes and herbs like tarragon and parsley. And then mixes them with pantry staples like an onion, cannellini beans, tuna, olives, capers and vinegar. No shopping list. No runs to the grocery store. Serve it with a piece of thick toasted crusty bread to soak up all that juicy tomato goodness.

Print Recipe Pin Recipe

Prep Time 20 minutes mins

refrigerate 1 hour hr

Total Time 1 hour hr 20 minutes mins

Course Appetizer, lunch, Main Course, Salad

Cuisine American, Mediterranean

Servings 4

Equipment

• medium covered bowl

Ingredients

  

• ⅓ cup extra-virgin olive oil
• 2 tablespoons sherry vinegar
• 1-½ tablespoons capers plus 2 teaspoons brine
• 2 garlic cloves minced
• 1-½ teaspoons kosher salt
• 1-½ pounds mixed tomatoes cored and cut into 1” pieces
• ½ small red onion very thinly sliced
• 15 oz. can cannellini beans or white beans
• 7.7 oz. solid white tuna packed in olive oil lightly drained and flaked
• ¾ cup pitted mixed olives cut in half (preferably Castelvetrano and/or kalamata)
• 2 tablespoons fresh chopped flat-leaf parsley plus more for garnish
• 1 tablespoon fresh chopped tarragon plus more for garnish
• salt and pepper to taste
• crusty bread for serving

Instructions

 

• Whisk together oil, vinegar, capers, brine, garlic and salt in a medium bowl. Add tomatoes and sliced onions and mix to combine. Cover and marinate in the refrigerator for 1 to 8 hours.
• Add white beans, flaked tuna, olives, parsley and tarragon and toss to combine.
• Transfer to a serving dish or platter. Serve with or over toasted slices of bread.

Keyword #fattoush, #garden fresh salad, #juicy tomatoes, #marinated tomatoes, #mediterranean salad, #spanish tomatoes, panzanella, tomato salad