This Ain’t Your Mom’s Tuna on Tomato

Our Mom would often serve salads like tuna or bean salads on top of a fresh ripe butterflied tomato. What a simple way to up the presentation score on a dish. Here, I amped it up even more with a bed of spinach and grilled eggplant. Mom would have loved it.

1 12 oz can tuna, drained

1 Tbsp snipped chives

2 Tbsp good real mayonnaise

juice of 1/4 lemon

dash garlic powder, to taste

1 eggplant

4 vine ripened tomatoes

4 oz fresh baby spinach leaves

1/2 lemon cut into 4 wedges

favorite vinaigrette

Heat grill to medium high. Toss together the tuna, chives, mayo, lemon juice and garlic powder in a bowl. Allow to rest in the refrigerator while you prepare the rest of the dish.

Slice the eggplant into eight thin slices. Spray both sides of each slice with oil. Grill the slices about 4 minutes per side, to lightly brown. Remove slices to a baking sheet in a single layer.

Remove the top core of each tomato by carving a shallow v-shaped cone out of the top. Now slice the tomatoes almost, but not completely through into 6 wedges. To do this, first make a slice down to about 1/4 inch of the bottom of the tomato. Rotate the tomato 60 degrees (one third rotation) and make a second cut just shy of the bottom. Finally rotate another 60 degrees and make a third cut. Carefully butterfly the tomato by gently spreading the slices apart.

Lay one fourth of the spinach leaves on each of four plates. Top each with 2 criss-crossed slices of roasted eggplant. Top the eggplant with a butterflied tomato. Finally, top each tomato with one fourth of the tuna mixture.

Garnish with fresh mint if desired. Serve with lemon wedges. Pass vinaigrette to season salad.

Serves 4.

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