Oh-livia!  What is it about your lovely essence that makes me think of Spring and all things healthy and positive?  The blooms of May have inspired me to share what strikes me as a quintessential Olivia Newton-John summer food choice:  your very own Tamramma Tuna Salad recipe!  It looks so good and so simple, in fact, that I am going to break with my practice of never trying the recipes I propagate  and actually try to cook this one myself (the fact that this dish might be described more accurately as requiring more “mixing” than “cooking” augurs well for the likelihood of me giving it a whirl).

I should also mention that you have a brand new cookbook out, LivWise, (you can link to the Huffington Post piece about it here.). Your Tamaramma Tuna is not, however, from the new book — it’s at least twenty five years old — as evinced by this dated, unflattering picture that accompanied the recipe.  Try as I might, photoshop was not be of much help making the salad look pretty, so I just put a black oval around it to accent the dark green lettuce and onions and generally gussie it up a bit.  Anyway, since it’s you Olivia, we know we can trust that the Tamaramma Tuna Salad is a winner.

And for all my readers, in case you’re interested in further thoughts on the legendary ONJ (and who wouldn’t be?) and missed my earlier Olivia Newton-John Xanadu essay (which went on to become one of my blog’s greatest hits), here is “Now That I’m Here, Now That You’re Near:” In Praise of Olivia Newton-John’s Wretched/Wonderful Xanadu,”   

So what’s your favorite thing about Oliva?

OLIVIA NEWTON JOHN’S TAMARAMMA TUNA SALAD

Drain two cans of white-meat tuna packed in water.   Put tuna in a medium-size mixing bowl, then break it into bite-size chunks.  Add 1/4 malt vinegar, 1 cup grated carrot, 1/2 cup chopped celery, 1/2 bunch chopped green onions, 1/2 cup grapes, 1/2 cup white raisins, 1/2 of a green pepper (diced), 1/2 of a red pepper (diced), and 1/2 cup oil and vinegar dressing.