Tuna Nicoise Stuffed Olives: Stuffed {The Ultimate Comfort Food Cookbook}

I love stuff. Sometimes I'm worried I may become a hoarder...

What kind of stuff do I love? Jewelry, flowers, kitchen toys, shoes, candles, etc. I also LOVE food stuff and food stuffed in food. Stuffed peppers, stuffed cabbage, stuffed French toast...what's not to like?

So when I got a chance to receive a preview copy of Stuffed: The Ultimate Comfort Food Cookbook by Dan Whalen, I was thrilled.

Dan is the man behind The Food In My Beard blog and now he has a book!! I've actually met Dan when I was in Boston a few years ago and am so happy for his success.

Each recipe includes a heat number and pig-out number: I really liked that idea. The pig-out number is more fun than seeing the calorie count, right? And the heat number is pretty explanatory. There are great photos, clear directions, and a back story for each recipe. You'll find recipes for stuffed breads, stuffed pasta and rice, stuffed meats, stuffed veggies and fruits, stuffed sweets, and a few basics like fresh pasta dough.

WARNING: after looking through the book you may feel like you've gained 10 pounds. Some of the recipes include Loaded Potato Pierogi, Hamburger Stuffed with Mac and Cheese, and Pork Belly Stuffed Cornbread Bites. But there are some lighter recipes as well, and I decided to try one of those.

Tuna Nicoise Stuffed Olives: Stuffed {The Ultimate Comfort Food Cookbook}
Recipe from Stuffed: The Ultimate Comfort Food Cookbook by Dan Whalen

Tuna Niçoise Stuffed Olives
Makes: 25 olives

Heat: 0
Pig-Out Scale: 3.5

Filling
1 egg
5 green beans
6 ounces (168 g) cooked tuna
½ vine-ripened tomato, seeds and insides removed
Juice of ½ lemon
1½ teaspoons mayonnaise
½ teaspoon Dijon mustard
25 of the biggest olives you can find

Prep the Egg and Beans: Place the egg in a small saucepot and cover with heavily
salted, cold water. Bring to a boil. When the water comes to a full boil, drop in your
green beans. After exactly 1 minute of boiling, remove the pot from the heat; 2
minutes later, remove the green beans and stop the cooking by dropping them into
ice water. Allow the egg to sit in the hot water for 10 minutes total after removing
from the heat. Put your egg into the ice water to stop the cooking.

Make the Filling: Flake up your tuna and chop it up really small. You want this very
uniform and small so it can fit into the small olive cavity. Dice your tomato, green
beans and hard-boiled egg very small as well. Add them to a bowl along with the
lemon juice, mayonnaise and mustard, and mix well.

Stuff It!: Get your olives out of the brine and ready to stuff. If you decided to torture
yourself by buying olives that still have their pits, go ahead and take out the pits.
Hope you have an olive pitter! Because there is only a small hole and cavity that you
are going to be stuffing, you need to find a small utensil to really pack the stuffing in
there. I used the end of a chopstick. Take a little bit of the tuna mixture and place it
over the olive hole, and then stamp it in there like you are loading a cannon. Serve
these little guys on a super fancy charcuterie plate at your next party!

About Olives
Traditionally, and quite obviously, this salad uses the Niçoise olive. This particular
olive is a bit too small for stuffing the way we want. The best and most common
variety for this recipe is the Cerignola olive, but other large olives include the
Sevillano, Ascolano and Barouni varieties.

This was so delicious! Of course stuffing olives isn't an easy task, but once in a while for a special party it's definitely worth it! If you don't want to stuff olives, please still make the tuna salad and just add a few chopped olives. This recipe has a great flavor and is so much more fun than your typical tuna with mayonnaise and celery.

What's YOUR favorite food to stuff?