Italian Potato Salad is a lightened up twist on traditional potato salad. Red potatoes are coated in peppery olive oil and tossed with crunchy cucumber, tender tomatoes, briny olives and capers, buttery boiled eggs, then spiked with vinegar, oregano and slivers of fresh basil.
This Italian style potato salad recipe is easy to assemble and adding a can of good quality tuna makes it a meal!
Recipes are nomads in our home; all but a few stay for a meal and then never return. There are just too many new things to try. Who knows why some recipes decide to stick around, but this salad is one of them. It’s the simple flavors that keep me coming back.
With a bit of choreography, each bite can be different: cool, crisp cucumber; sweet, tangy chunks of tomato; briny, oil-cured olives; creamy eggs and salty tuna, fresh basil hinting of licorice and mint.
This salad came from a collectors edition of Bon Appetit, highlighting Islands of the Mediterranean. It was published in 2002 (!) and has floated among my cookbooks ever since.
Typically I boil enough potatoes and eggs to last for 3 or 4 days of this salad. Then at lunch time or for a light dinner, I can assemble the salad in just a few minutes. It’s portable for a picnic or a weekday lunch at your desk.
More Main Course Salads to Try
Italian Potato Salad
Ingredients
- 2 pounds medium red-skinned potatoes scrubbed
- 5 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
- 1 english cucumber quartered lengthwise, cut into cubes
- 4 plum tomatoes cut into quarters
- 1/2 red onion very thinly sliced
- 24 black oil-cured olives pitted, coarsely chopped
- 1/4 cup slivered fresh basil plus more for garnish
- 2 tablespoons salt cured capers rinsed and drained
- 3 tablespoons champagne or white wine vinegar
- 1/2 teaspoon dried oregano
- 4 hard-boiled eggs peeled, quartered
- 2 6-ounce cans tuna drained (ideally canned in olive oil or its own juice)
Instructions
- Heat a large pot of water over high heat until boiling. Add a small handful of salt. Add potatoes to boiling water and cook until tender, 20 to 30 minutes. Drain potatoes and let stand until cool enough to handle.
- Cut potatoes into rough, 1-inch cubes and place in a serving bowl. Add olive oil and toss to coat. Add cucumber, tomatoes, onion, olives, basil, and capers.
- Whisk vinegar and oregano together in small bowl; add to salad and toss lightly to combine.
- With your fingers or a fork, separate tuna in to bite size chunks and sprinkle over salad. Arrange boiled egg quarters over salad. Season to taste with salt and freshly ground black pepper. Garnish with basil sprigs and serve.
Just looking at this makes me happy! A burst of flavor with every bite!!
Yes! Thank you so much, Annie!
This salad is BEYOND similar to a Nicoise Salad minus a few things! Never the less, I LOVE this combo!
This is right up my alley. Great salad, Marissa!
Thank you, Sabrina!
I would love to structure the perfect bite with a little bit of everything from this salad! The colors and textures going on in here are gorgeous!
A big ol’ high five to you and Bon Appetit! Mediterranean cuisine is my jam and love all the flavors in this salad. I could definitely make this recipe and eat on it all week! Thanks for sharing it and happy Friday!
Isn’t it the best when you can cook once and have a few meals? I love to cook (obviously 🙂 ), but it’s nice to have a break. Happy Friday to you too!!
This salad reminds me of last summer when I was pregnant and feeling horrible, Marissa. We often had a big tuna salad for dinner because that’s one of the things I could still stomach!
It hasn’t put me off though… haha! I love your version, Marissa. It’s beautiful!
You crack me up, Helen! I’m glad it still looks appetizing after that… 🙂
Marissa,
This salad is right up my alley for a summer treat. Oh, how I wish my sweetie would eat chicken babies! I am afraid she is going to have to pick around them this time. You know me well enough that vinegar is not going to be used… I am thinking of substituting Albariño. I know it is Spanish, but the high acidity in the Albariño will substitute well for the bad wine they call vinegar. I am with Dorothy – Grilled Fresh Tuna the way to go! This may have to be a weekend treat!
LOL, Tom! I’ll have to look for Albariño to try in the dressing next time. 🙂 And I agree with you and Dorothy 100%, I never tire of fresh tuna!
LOL! I LOVE that you referred to recipes as nomads! It’s the same way in my house, I’m just not clever enough to come up with that name for them. 🙂 Anyways, I have been swooning over this potato salad since I saw it for the first time on social media. It looks just DELICIOUS and GORGEOUS! I love the Italian spin, the fresh produce and the punch of protein! I could definitely make a meal out of this, Marissa!! Pinned! Cheers, friend!
Thanks so much, sweet Cheyanne! Have a wonderful weekend!
So getting this on the summer entertaining menu Marissa! Looks so incredibly yummy!
Thank you, MaryAnn! Speaking of menus, I have your White Bean and Tomato Ragout Over Ciabatta on our menu for next week. Looks incredible!
Oh I totally know what you mean about the migratory nature of recipes, Marissa! Our house is the same way. I was actually just thinking about that last night! We rarely ever make any of our “old standbys” anymore, but that’s ok…it’s fun to keep trying new recipes and flavors! You had me at Italian on this one, and it sounds amazing. I love the addition of tuna to turn this side dish into a meal by itself! 🙂
Thanks, David! Tuna is magic like that, don’t you think. It can make almost any salad a meal. 🙂
I totally know what you mean. There’s just too many recipes to make. We’ll have something and think it’s the best thing ever and maybe never have again, but, like you, there are a few that make it through and we have more than once 😉 Gotta love those special addition magazines! They are look recipe books in themselves – I wouldn’t be able to part with ’em. Such a delicious salad, Marissa. Love the olive addition in there 🙂
Thanks, Dawn! Do you ever have some incredible meal and then later can’t remember where you found it!? I hate it when that happens…
What a beautiful potato salad, Marissa! It’s indeed great time to start making potato and pasta salads. Also, I do appreciate this simple dressing. I’m not a fan of mayo dressings in salads, and I normally go with just olive oil, balsamic, or lemon juice. Thus, this one is 100% approved.
Thanks, Ben!
I love all of the strong flavors in this salad and really love that it doesn’t have mayo (yuck :-).
haha, not a mayo fan, huh? 🙂 Thanks, Amy.
Hi Marissa! This salad looks wonderful! I just put in some basil plants in my side garden. I can almost always get fresh tuna steaks and I’m thinking of grilling the tuna in place of canned. I, like Paula who posted above, also have every issue of BA dating back to the early 80’s.
Grilled fresh tuna is ALWAYS a winner in my book and would make this salad even better!
What a filling salad! Love the flavor combo.
LOOKS DELICIOUS!
YUM!! Looks so delicious and refreshing!
What a fresh looking salad! And it looks like it has some weight to it (i.e. you could eat it for dinner by itself) 🙂
This salad sounds amazing! I could eat any and all versions of the classic salade nicoise without a second thought. So good!
I do the same, prepare a recipe to last me a few days! Gorgeous salad Marissa! I have the same BA magazine and hundreds of others, some date to 1982… and I hope to keep them forever. Have a great week!