Recipe 4: salad as a meal challenge

At this point, my copy of Patricia Wells' new book, Salad As A Meal is all marked up with ripped bits of post-it notes. This is my relatively unorganized way of letting my future self know to "look here for an interesting sounding recipe". The exercise is kinda fun, and kinda dizzying. The orange post-its certainly make the book look like part of a "challenge", as opposed to something I have laying on the kitchen counter for the pretty pictures. Today marks week two of this four week challenge.

For a weekend lunch I tried the Penne Salad with Tuna and Spicy Mustard recipe. I gotta say, it was just okay. Jacob said, "Wow, this is like tuna noodle casserole", and so that's what we called it... all weekend long. I don't really know what tuna noodle casserole tastes like though. I'm pretty sure I ate that dish once. I believe I was at camp Whittle, a YMCA camp in the San Bernadino Mountains in Southern California. If I recall, I liked tuna noodle casserole, but alas, that was long ago, and the memory is not strong. Either way, I like the way the words "Tuna Noodle Casserole" sound, so I ended up saying that a lot over the weekend.
Wells' recipe was quick and simple, incorporating no additional ingredients than those listed in the title. Perhaps with higher quality ingredients this would have been spectacular, but I was pulling from my pantry, and it was something I'll most likely only make once. Having said that, Jacob and I finished the whole thing.

Penne Salad with Tuna and Spicy Mustard