Tuna Mayo Pasta Salad

This tuna mayo pasta salad recipe was created as a desperate solution to make something EASY for dinner with ingredients I already had. But this concoction turned out so good that it is now on a regular rotation in our household.

Yeah OK…it definitely is not the prettiest pasta salad in the world. But if you know and love the Japanese tuna mayo onigiri, you will love this quick, easy and delicious side dish!

Related article: What? You’d rather have a prettier pasta salad? Check out our Japanese Pasta Salad recipe!

Tuna Mayo Onigiri

Japanese Onigiri, if you are not familiar with it, is the triangular rice ball wrapped in seaweed. There are many variations of onigiri, distinguished mainly by the filling that the onigiri has inside. Typical fillings include salmon, pickled plum, cod roe, to name a few.

Tuna mayo onigiri, as in its name, is made with tuna and Japanese mayonnaise. It is one of the most popular onigiri flavors recently in Japan.

So, I thought; If the tuna mayo goes well with rice, why not with pasta? And I was right! It’s fantastic!

Another related article: Really? You’d rather have the tuna mayo onigiri instead? Go find your tuna mayo onigiri recipe.

Key Ingredient for Tuna Mayo Pasta Salad

Tuna and mayonnaise with pasta may seem overly simple. But to get the great flavor for the tuna mayo onigiri filling and in this recipe, the key ingredient, in my opinion, is mentsuyu. Mentsuyu is the concentrated soup base that’s used in many Japanese soup and food recipes. It just gives the depth of flavor like nothing else.

You could substitute mentsuyu with soy sauce if you must. But instead of using 2 tablespoons of soy sauce (which I think gets too salty), use 1.5 tablespoons of soy sauce total and adjust the taste from there to your liking. If you love Japanese food, though, mentsuyu is one of the main Japanese ingredients you should have on hand anyway!

Tuna Mayo Pasta Recipe

I hope you enjoy it as much as we do!