william boyd’s tonno e fagioli

his wife refers to it as “oh, your tuna salad…” but william boyd prefers its italian name, tonno e fagioli.

Also known as tuna and bean salad.

This recipe is endlessly adaptable. Got some olives? Chuck those in. Cucumber is welcome. Red onion instead of white? Absolutely no probs. But here is how William Boyd makes it for friends - usually in the South of France, which is where we’d all like to be eating it amirite?

ingredients

(Serves 4)

1 sweet onion

1 fennel bulb

1 large tin or jar of tuna

1 can or jar of white beans (cannelloni work well here)

A handful of fresh flat leaf parsley

A squeeze of lemon

A sprinkle of flaky salt

A grind of black pepper

Glug of extra virgin olive oil

Chilli flakes optional

method

The beauty of this recipe is its simplicity. A mandoline is useful to get uniformly translucent slivers of onion and fennel, but a good knife will do the trick.

Cut the green stalks off your fennel bulb, but hang on to those wispy little leaves as they make a great addition to the salad. Cut the bulb in half then into quarters and slice crosswise.

Slice your onion as thin as possible - thick slices can be overwhelming. Don’t let the onions think they’re the star of the show.

Finely chop the parsley.

Drain the beans and tuna and add to your salad bowl.

Then add the fennel, onion, and parlsey to the party and mix!

William Boyd likes to dress his with his ‘secret’ 007 salad dressing, but you can just as easily use a good glug of decent olive oil and a squeeze of lemon. Season to taste - the chilli flakes add a nice heat.

Ta-dah! An impressive but easy salad best eaten in the sun.