Rice Salad with Taggiasca Olives and Ligurian Extra Virgin Olive Oil

I am officially a fan of Ligurian olive oil and Taggiasca olives.

After eating a rich, tasty, hearty rabbit for dinner yesterday, I wanted something light for brunch and made rice salad with leftover Jasmin rice.

The thing is, when I drizzled some of the Ligurian extra virgin olive oil onto the rice, tossed it around a bit and tasted it, it was...wonderful! It felt like a violation to put anything else into it as a matter of fact.

I hesitated to add any other ingredients for fear of corrupting the lovely flavors which for some reason reminded me of stepping onto a layer of virgin snow.

I added some Taggiasca olives first and some salt, and tasted it again.

So far so good.

Then I added some ripe red cherry tomatoes I picked-up at the market yesterday as well as some thinly sliced red onions.

Then I added some chopped basil.

Still really nice.

Then I got more daring and added some tuna, because this is what goes into these kinds of salads usually.

It was tasting all very good and then I wondered about adding lemon juice.

Would this be too strong?

I only added a few drops and tossed the salad around.

Got more daring and ground some black pepper on top.

To be a purist, you'd need to procure tuna packed in Ligurian olive oil, but even with this shortcoming, the rice salad still tasted great.

Jasmine Rice Salad with Taggiasca Olives & Ligurian Extra Virgin Olive Oil

Ingredients

Leftover Jasmine Rice
Ligurian Extra Virgin Olive Oil
Taggiasca Olives
Red Onion
Tuna
Cherry Tomatoes
Fresh Basil Leaves
Lemon Juice
Sea Salt
Black Pepper

This is a leftover recipe and there are no steps to be followed, but I would suggest tossing the rice with the olive oil first, and then adding the other ingredients. I prefer to put the basil in last because it can get bruised and discolor. The amount of each ingredient is left to the discretion of the cook as some people prefer a stronger onion flavor, stronger lemon flavor and so on. However, if you want to retain the lovely taste of the olive oil, it's advisable to use as little as you can (except for the Taggiasca olives of course!).