When I have a big tomato hanging around the place
I am often compelled to do this to it…
This dish was proposed in an advertisement for Star-Kist Tuna and I always think of it as Gene Tierney’s Leaning Tower of Tuna…
I love the fanciful nature of this dish and sometimes fantasise about surprising some guests with a plateful of these for a lunch party! I’ve only ever made them for me, myself and I though. For my one person version of Gene’s dish I use an 80g tin of tuna but I’m guessing Star-Kist tins of tuna were bigger than this. I also garnish mine with gherkins and pickled silverskin onions rather than pieces of watercress. It is such a pleasing thing to make just for yourself when there is nobody else around. Making a ridiculously eccentric thing just for myself once in a while always brings me great joy.
Go on, treat yourself, and send me a photo! It’s a perfect thing to brighten up a working from home day.
This recipe features in the Vincent Price Supper with the Stars book as well as Gene’s cheesecake recipe. Here’s a peek of some of the pages featuring Gene. There are less than 50 copies of the book left, so do grab one soon if you have had this on your to-do list for a while! Skip over to Peter’s website to score one, once they are gone, they are gone my friends!
Gene Tierney’s Tuna Salad Royal
In a salad bowl combine 1 can Star-Kist Tuna, 2 tablespoons sweet pickle, 1/2 cup chopped celery.
Add 1 tablespoon lemon juice to 1/4 cup Kraft Mayonnaise and toss together with tuna mixture, season to taste.
For each portion, place lettuce on a salad plate and cut a peeled tomato into three crosswise slices.
Starting with a slice of tomato placed on the lettuce, alternate tuna salad with remaining slices.
Garnish with mayonnaise and watercress as shown.
It’s so hard to choose a photo of Gene to be the “featured” image on the front page of the blog, she’s just so gorgeous!
Love the hairdo in this one.
The hat! The gloves!
The eyes!
Yeah? What of it?
A Gene triptych.
A rare shot of Gene not looking stroppy.
I love this one of her, “at rest”, staring into space. Mindfulness at its very best!
But I think this one is my fave…
Gene with a fag on!
Looks gorgeous – I would be most happy to be served this for lunch!
I will rustle this up for you sometime Lady C!