Tuna Salad Quesadillas

***Change up your salad with new additions. Maybe not all of them at once!***

Like many of you, I have probably for most of my life made tuna salad pretty much like my mother did. A can of tuna, a few spoons of mayo, one chopped hard cooked egg, a little onion, pickle and celery and — Fanny’s your aunt — hot weather lunch was served with little or no stove time. Over the years, though, as my cooking developed, so did my tuna salad. One year I was shocked to see that a happy little bit of lemon zest had slipped into the mixing bowl by “mistake.” Whoa! Another time a dab of perky horseradish became a sudden, but happy addition. Soon, though not always, cucumbers/fennel/carrots/bell peppers joined the party along with a good healthy spoonful of Dijon-style mustard, cornichons leftover from a wine and cheese event I catered, and —wait for it — a big splash of red wine vinegar. The biggest change was the consistent use of salt, pepper, and crushed red pepper, along with the occasional herbs, no matter what else I dumped in. Why didn’t I ever season my tuna salad before? (Mom, you didn’t tell me.) Of course I often ate it on toast, but sometimes I went with the old school ladies’ lunch counter lower-carb style: spooned into the middle of a quartered tomato, hopefully ripe. Other weeks, I thinned it out and ate it scooped up with potato chips or Triscuits (HELLO, TUNA DIP!!) — Triscuits being one of my most unknown addictions. (The rye were the best, but they discontinued them–sob, sob. Now I’m even more stuck on the organic thin variety. Try them and see. Nope, I’m not on Nabisco’s payroll.) After a while, my tuna salad was never the same twice in a row. Who knew what would happen next to my trusty, inexpensive summer fun food? And, by the way, how did we come to eat so much tuna fish??

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Tuna Salad Quesadillas — a Recipe in a Title

If you read both blogs regularly, you’ll be starting to feel like I’m hooked on this sort of salad. In fact, I’m not.

Farro Salad with Canned Salmon, Basil, Tomatoes and Spinach on my Dinner Place blog

Somehow, however, they end up in my cooking-for-one lineup fairly regularly because they’re easy to make for lunch or, more likely, because my husband adores them. He’s pretty much a sandwich fiend ( just watch him eat a great sub), but give him egg salad, tuna salad, etc., and he’s beyond a pretty happy guy. Add pickles? Chips? That’s a thrilling lunch full of smiles to see.

Here he is in Montreal last June. Waiting for a sandwich, of course.

The other day I thought we’d have some tuna salad and crackers:

This is actually salmon salad.

But in the frig were some high-fiber tortillas that needed to be used. I’d make a wrap, I thought. Then I remembered some hot tuna sandwiches we often had as newlyweds. Tuna salad on a hamburger bun with cheese that was then wrapped in foil and heated in the oven for 45 minutes! (It must have been cooked to death.) And the next thing I know, I’m making tuna quesadillas. They’re my new go-to for a tuna sandwich. And, well, I guess this sounds somewhat pedestrian, doesn’t it? But once you’ve made it, I think you’ll be happy I took the time to write it up.

You go ahead and make tuna salad any way you like (or buy it at the deli), but if you need a recipe, I’ll put one at the bottom. Meantime, here’s the story in a few pics, which goes just about how you’d think it would:

Melt 1 teaspoon butter in medium skillet over medium heat. Add small tortilla and spread with about 1/3 cup tuna salad leaving a little space around the perimeter. Top with some sliced cheddar cheese. ( I tore one slice in half.) Top with another tortilla.

Let the quesadilla cook a couple of minutes or until quite toasty; carefully turn and cook the other side until golden. Remove to a cutting board and gently slice in half and in half again using a serrated knife.

Serve with some pickles, greens, and tomatoes. Ok, chips if you really need them.

Tuna Salad:

1 6-7 ounce can tuna, drained, and broken up with a fork
1 boiled egg, peeled and chopped (I do this in the microwave sometimes; see below*)
1-2 tablespoons mayonnaise (to taste)
1/2 teaspoon Dijon-style mustard, optional
1/4 teaspoon Prepared horseradish, optional
1 tablespoon minced onion
3 tablespoons each: minced celery and minced dill pickles
Pinch each: kosher salt, fresh-ground pepper, and dried dill
Pinch crushed red pepper (optional)

. In a medium bowl, mix all ingredients together with a table fork. Stir well. Taste and adjust seasonings. Add a bit more mayo or a drizzle of olive oil if you like your salad more moist.

*To make a “boiled” egg in the microwave:

Grease or “Pam” a deep cereal orsoup bowl and crack an egg into it. With a sharp knife, pierce the yolk once and the white several times to help avoid eggsplosions. (Couldn’t resist that.) Cover tightly with plastic wrap (or a firmly fitting second bowl or dinner plate if you’re brave) and cook on high about a minute. Using pot holder or mitts (this is hot), remove the bowl from the microwave and let sit a minute or so before unwrapping. Tip the egg out of the bowl onto a cutting board and let cool another minute or so before chopping.

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two-dog kitchen and around the ‘hood

Pumpkin-Chocolate Chip Bread for the Choir:

Working on updating the Italian Beef photographs for an old post….and had to make Italian Beef (ah…) Gotta love Chicago food. No matter what, brown food doesn’t photograph well: