My first exposure to Tuna and Macaroni Salad came years ago, while shopping the salad bar as one of those by-the-pound deli places that dot big Northeast cities. You grab a lidded container and load it up with various pre-made salads, gummy sushi rolls and wilted greens, then pay huge sums for your sub-par box of mayonnaise-y goodness. The tuna mac was always appealing upon initial examination, but frequently disappointing when tasted. I think that many others of you have similar stories of disappointment in relationship to this dish - whether you're familiar with the kind out of the salad bar or from childhood potlucks and church suppers.
However, last night, I set out to redeem the noble tuna mac and was far from disappointed. I first started thinking about tuna salad over the weekend, when my mother mentioned that she was making it for dinner on Saturday night. Growing up, she always served tuna salad with a side of mashed potatoes - there was something about the combination of creamy and crunchy that she really liked. These days, she cubes a boiled potato and tosses it into the tuna salad instead, getting that creamy/crunchy action without the effort of a second dish. That got me thinking about adding a starchy element to tuna salad and the pint jar of whole wheat elbows on the kitchen shelf caught my eye and winked.
