This flavorful Tuna Pesto Pasta Salad is packed with protein and fiber, and comes together in just 20 minutes. Perfect for lunch, dinner, or a potluck!
Pesto is truly a weeknight hero. We love it in so many easy-to-make recipes, like this Chicken Pesto Tortellini Salad and this vegetarian Orzo Pesto Salad too!
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Why Make This Recipe
- Only 8 ingredients, and can be made in the time it takes to boil your pasta!
- Delicious Mediterranean flavor, including kalamata olives and feta cheese
- Veggies, protein, and fiber in one bowl!
- Budget-friendly, with canned tuna
🥗 Ingredients
- Kalamata Olives: Feel free to substitute a different type of olives if you prefer. Nicoise olives would also be delicious here.
- Cherry Tomatoes: With cherry tomatoes, you can make this dish year-round. But in the height of summer, feel free to replace with chopped regular-sized tomatoes.
- English Cucumber: Any seedless cucumber is fine here, such as those baby cucumbers you can find in stores or at your farmers’ market. If all you have is a regular cucumber, you’ll want to peel it and cut out most of the seeds, so it does not make the pasta salad soggy.
- Chickpeas: These add protein and fiber to the dish. Replace with black beans or white beans if you like.
- Tuna: We love the oil-packed tuna in glass jars, but you can use whatever canned or jarred tuna you prefer.
- Pesto: If you’d like to make your own pesto, check out our recipes for Lemon Basil Pesto and Ramp Pesto.
- Feta Cheese: Replace with goat cheese if you’d like, or just stir in some grated parmesan cheese.
🥣 Step-by-Step Instructions
Heat water in a large saucepan, and throw in a teaspoon of salt to season the water. When water is boiling, add 8 ounces of pasta and cook according to the package instructions.
When pasta is done, reserve ¼ cup of the cooking liquid, then drain pasta. Rinse pasta with cold water until pasta is just warm.
While water is heating or pasta is cooking, halve ½ cup kalamata olives and 1 pint cherry tomatoes. Chop an English cucumber into small chunks.
Rinse and drain 1 can of chickpeas. Drain a jar of oil-packed tuna.
Add pasta to a large mixing bowl and toss with a small jar of pesto. Add reserved pasta water, 1 tablespoon at a time, if necessary to create a silky sauce.
Stir in olives, tomatoes, cucumber, and chickpeas. Use a fork to flake tuna into the bowl, stirring gently to combine. Stir in 2 ounces of feta cheese, and transfer to a serving bowl.
Sprinkle an additional 2 ounces of feta cheese on top to serve.
🧐 Recipe FAQs for Tuna Pesto Pasta Salad
Store leftovers in an airtight container in the refrigerator for up to 4 days. You can then serve it cold or reheat it gently just until warm. This pasta salad, like most pastas, does not freeze well.
Surprisingly, yes! They’re delicious together in this pasta salad, and you can also stir a tablespoon or two of pesto into tuna salad for extra flavor.
That really depends on the dish. For a tuna pasta salad like this one, we prefer eating it at room temperature or cold. On the other hand, you would want to serve a baked creamy tuna pasta dish (like a tuna noodle casserole) hot.
👩🍳 Expert Tips
Wondering what kind of pasta is best for this Tuna Pesto Pasta recipe? We love a fusilli (corkscrew) or rotini pasta, but you can really use what you prefer. Farfalle or penne would also work. Of course you can go with spaghetti or fettuccine, but we find it’s easier to spear everything into one bite if your pasta is easier to eat. Try a gluten-free pasta too!
Reserving pasta water is a key trick for a good pasta sauce. The starch in it combines with the pasta sauce to really coat the noodles. It’s particularly helpful in this recipe because we ask you to run the cooked pasta under cold water, which removes some of the starch. That stops the pasta from cooking further and also cools it down.
Store-bought pesto can vary in consistency. If you find your pesto sauce is too dry, try stirring in some extra virgin olive oil. This is also a good trick if your pesto sauce dries out after storing in the refrigerator.
You may be tempted to just toss the rinsed pasta back into the saucepan to combine with the pesto sauce. However, the hot pan will quickly dry out the pesto sauce. Tossing them together in a mixing bowl is a much better technique.
Got extra pesto sauce? Make it into this delicious Pesto Dressing by combining with just a couple of ingredients. If you're out of pesto, try tossing this salad with a different dressing—this Niçoise Salad Dressing would be perfect.
Want to serve this with something else? A small plate of this healthy tuna pesto pasta is delicious next to a bowl of soup, like our Coconut Milk Potato Leek Soup or our Carrot and Lentil Soup.
You might also serve it next to this Carrot Cucumber Salad, a simple green salad, or serve it on a bed of mixed greens. Any way you serve it, you’ve got an easy weeknight meal!
And speaking of weeknight meals, if you love tuna fish, please try this Healthy Tuna Casserole. Comforting and delicious, with no canned soup! Or try another deliciously easy seafood pasta recipe with this Penne al Salmone.
Other Pasta Salad Recipes
Pasta salads are some of our favorite easy-to-make recipes. Great for make-ahead lunches or a light dinner—you really can’t go wrong. Here are a few favorites:
If you try this Tuna Pesto Pasta recipe, we would love to hear from you! Please rate this recipe and leave a comment below—your feedback is invaluable to us.
And please follow along on Instagram, Pinterest, and Facebook or subscribe to our newsletter. We’d love to inspire you with more delicious, healthy, and seasonal recipes!
📖 Recipe
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Tuna Pesto Pasta
Ingredients
- 8 ounces pasta
- ½ cup pitted kalamata olives
- 1 pint cherry tomatoes
- 1 English cucumber seedless
- 1 15-ounce can low-sodium chickpeas
- 1 6.7-ounce jar oil-packed tuna
- 1 6.7-ounce jar pesto sauce
- 4 ounces crumbled feta cheese
Instructions
- Heat water in a large saucepan, and throw in a teaspoon of salt to season the water.
- When water is boiling, add pasta and cook according to the package instructions. When pasta is done, reserve ¼ cup of the cooking liquid, then drain pasta and rinse with cool water.
- While water is heating or pasta is cooking, halve olives and cherry tomatoes.
- Chop cucumber into small chunks.
- Rinse and drain chickpeas.
- Drain tuna.
- Add pasta to a large mixing bowl and toss with pesto. Add reserved pasta water, 1 tablespoon at a time, if necessary, to create a silky sauce.
- Stir in olives, tomatoes, cucumber, and chickpeas.
- Use a fork to flake tuna into the bowl, stirring gently to combine.
- Stir in half of the feta cheese, and transfer to a serving bowl.
- Sprinkle the remaining feta on top to serve.
Notes
Store leftovers in an airtight container in the refrigerator for up to 4 days. You can then serve it cold or reheat it gently just until warm. This pasta salad, like most pastas, does not freeze well. Expert Tips:
Reserving pasta water is a key trick for a good pasta sauce. The starch in it combines with the pasta sauce to really coat the noodles. It’s particularly helpful in this recipe because we ask you to run the cooked pasta under cold water, which removes some of the starch. That stops the pasta from cooking further and also cools it down. Store-bought pesto sauce varies in texture. If you find your pesto sauce is too dry, try stirring in some extra virgin olive oil. This is also a good solution if your pasta dries out after storing it in the refrigerator.
Nutrition
Instagram Users: Now that you've made this tuna and pesto pasta recipe, tag us @vanillabeancuisine or #vanillabeancuisine because we’d love to see your results!
More About Molly
Cooking healthy(ish) meals with seasonal ingredients is my passion. Trained as a French pastry chef, I spent over 10 years as a personal chef. Here you'll find well-tested recipes that you and your family will love!
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