Provençal Potato Salad

Every week, Caroline Wright creates simple, civilized recipes for Food52 that feed four -- for under $20, in under 20 minutes.

Today: Rekindle your love affair with potato salad. 

Potato salad in summer: It's an obvious choice that delivers year after year. (It is also a friendship based on an appreciation for carbs, which I totally get.) I wanted to shake things up a bit by turning potato salad into a fuller meal -- that is, not the kind where I eat handfuls of warm potatoes tossed in vinaigrette straight from the mixing bowl.

I swapped some of the potatoes for steamed zucchini and tossed everything in a salad dressing made with canned tuna. The result is a very creamy potato salad, full of briny and salty flavor, fresh summer vegetables, and a touch of tuna for good measure.

Provençal Potato Salad with Tuna Dressing

Serves 4

3 Yukon Gold potatoes (about 1 1/4 pounds), peeled and quartered
2 zucchini (about 8 ounces), halved lengthwise and sliced 1/2-inch thick
One (5-ounce) can tuna in oil
2 tablespoons Greek yogurt or sour cream
1 tablespoon capers
1 small garlic clove
1 tablespoon red wine vinegar
2 tablespoons olive oil
Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper
1/4 medium red onion, chopped
2 plum tomatoes, cut into 1-inch chunks
1/2 cup olives (I used Niçoise), chopped
1/4 cup torn basil leaves

See the full recipe (and save and print it) here.

As a freelance food writer and cook, I first wrote this style of recipe as a column on my blog, The Wright Recipes, as an excuse to cook good food for my friends in a quick and simple way. 

Twenty-Dollar, Twenty-Minute™ Meals grew into a cookbook that was published by Workman in May 2013. The recipes found here are original, made especially for Food52 to once again celebrate simple food with friends.

Photo by Caroline Wright