Creamy Tuna Pasta Salad
This Creamy Tuna Pasta Salad is a delightful tuna salad recipe for a luncheon or picnic, served in canning jars. Enjoy it cold or warm!
Years ago, before I knew Paul, and lived with some amazing roommates, we lived off of pasta salads. My favorite creation this Creamy Tuna Pasta Salad. I always added peas, but this time I added spicy sweet peppers. I’m in love with DeLallo’s which I think are the most flavorful, seriously I could eat the entire jar.
Creamy Tuna Pasta Salad
This tuna salad is a delicious Tuna Pasta Salad for any lunch, dinner, or snack, using flaky tuna, whole wheat pasta, cheese, olives, and veggies. What we really love is the creamy dressing. It’s sure to be a hit at your potlucks, cookouts and gatherings!
Why we love this recipe!
- Make and store in fridge (it doesn’t get soggy, the flavor gets better!) for lunch, picnics, snacks.
- It’s a great salad to serve in small canning jars (for a picnic).
- It’s a warm-weathers salad for quick meals or even potlucks!
Gather these ingredients:
Tuna is so versatile. It’s one of my favorite ingredients to make quick meals with with lots of protein, and affordable. You may want to try my 9 Easy Canned Tuna Meals.
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- Whole Wheat Penne Rigate: you can also use a whole grain pasta like rotini, fusilli, or penne
- Cans of tuna: we buy Albacore at Costco
- Olives: pitted
- Spicy sweet peppers: we buy Delallo brand
- Sweet pickles: optional to use dill pickles, but we think sweet pickles are the best!
- Red onion
- Mayonnaise
- Olive oil
- Lemon
- Salt
- Ground pepper
How to make Creamy Tuna Pasta Salad:
- Bring a large pot of water to a boil; add 1/4 cup salt. Add the pasta and cook as the label directs; drain. Transfer to a large bowl.
- Add the tuna (flake with a fork), olives, sweet peppers, pickles, and red onion to the bowl with the pasta.
- Make the dressing: Whisk the mayonnaise, lemon juice, salt and pepper to taste in a bowl. Pour over the pasta salad and toss to coat.
- Season with salt and pepper. Chill for up to 3 hours.
How do you serve Pasta Salad with Tuna?
This salad is big, and it’s one of the easiest salads to make! Especially for warm weather, it’s a great picnic, BBQ, or cookout salad.
I love serving it with grilled protein, like chicken in the summertime, and I hope you do too!
Tips and substitutions:
- Add more crunchy veggies, like celery, green onions, carrots (shreds), and baby peas. You can add baby bell peppers, cherry tomatoes, or cucumber.
- Add grated cheddar cheese (or small cheese cubes), or use your favorite kind of cheese.
- Swap sweet pickles for chopped dill pickles.
- Add fresh herbs, like dill or parsley.
- Add a spoonful of Dijon to the dressing, with a small amount of red pepper flakes.
- Want to add more spice? Add paprika, or a dash of cayenne pepper.
- Replace mayo with Greek yogurt, avocado (smashed), hummus, and pesto.
- We chose Whole Wheat Penne Rigate pasta, but it’s fine to use a different kind of pasta.
Use canning jars for a picnic
So for our picnic, we made this giant salad, but served it in very cute canning jars. You can pack them in a cooler, and everyone has their own serving!
Use these 4 oz quilted jelly jars (with lids) for serving (affiliate link).
How to store leftovers:
If you have leftovers (which you may – this recipe makes a lot), simply store in an airtight container (tupperware) in the fridge. This salad keeps well in the fridge up to 5 days. Give the salad a good tossing before serving the leftovers!
This salad is perfect for summer gatherings, potlucks, BBQs, or picnics.
It’s also a favorite in our home, an easy recipe to make when you don’t know what to make for lunch or dinner. It’s fast and easy to make, and everyone loves it!
More pasta salad recipes for picnics to try:
Potluck Spaghetti Tuna Salad Recipe
Get the Recipe:
Creamy Tuna Pasta Salad
Ingredients
- 16 oz DeLallo Whole Wheat Penne Rigate’, cooked, drained, and cooled
- 2 cans tuna, drained and flaked
- 1 cup olives, pitted and chopped
- 1 cup spicy sweet peppers, chopped
- 6 large sweet pickles, finely chopped
- ¼ cup red onion, finely chopped
- ⅓ cup mayonnaise
- ⅓ cup olive oil
- 1 lemon, juiced
- Salt
- Freshly ground pepper
Instructions
- Bring a large pot of water to a boil; add 1/4 cup salt. Add the pasta and cook as the label directs; drain. Transfer to a large bowl.
- Add the tuna, olives, sweet peppers, pickles, and red onion to the bowl with the pasta.
- Make the dressing: Whisk the mayonnaise, lemon juice, salt and pepper to taste in a bowl. Pour over the pasta salad and toss to coat. Season with salt and pepper. Chill for up to 3 hours.
Notes
