Salade Niçoise

This recipe originates from the South of France – hence the use of ripe mediterranean produce.  It makes a lovely substantial salad; a meal in itself rather than a side salad.

Although I have set out numbers of tomatoes, potatoes etc, you don’t need to be too exact.  And if you don’t particularly like anchovies or can’t find them easily, you can leave them out.

In many restaurants in the South of France it is made with tinned rather than fresh tuna.  You can substitute a drained tin of tuna in water if you want but I prefer the fresh fish.

You can eat it at room temperature or co-ordinate the cooking of the eggs, potatoes, beans and tuna so that they are warm on top of the lettuce and tomatoes.  Though there are a number of processes and it looks time consuming to make, you can cook the potatoes, eggs, beans and even tuna ahead of time and can even make the salad dressing ahead so that it is just a case of mixing everything together in the salad bowl when you want to eat.

Salad Ingredients

Dressing Ingredients

1. Remove the ends from the lettuce, rinse the leaves in cold water and dry them with a salad spinner or with some kitchen roll.  The put the leaves into your serving dish.
   
   
   
2. Halve the cherry tomatoes (or if using large tomatoes, cut them in half, remove and discard the green stem and then cut into wedges). Put these into the salad bowl.
   
3. Scatter the olives and anchovies over the lettuce and tomatoes.  (If you are using olives that still have the stones in them remember to tell everyone eating the salad so they don’t break a tooth!)
4. Bring a small pot of water to the boil and, when boiling, Lower the eggs in carefully and using a timer, cook for exactly 7 minutes.  At the end of the 7 minutes, drain the eggs and put them into a bowl of ice cold water to stop them cooking any more and to make them easier to peel.  When they are cold, peel the eggs, halve them and cut eat half into wedges. Add these to the salad bowl.
   
5. Cut the potatoes into bitesize pieces – about the size of a walnut shell, place them in a pot of cold, salted water and bring the water to the boil.  Cook for approximately 5-10 minutes (the exact time will depend on how big the pieces are).  The potatoes are done when the point of a knife slides into the centre of the potato easily.  When done, drain them and when cool put them onto the salad.
   
6. Remove the ends from the beans and cut them into even lengths about 4cm or 1/5 inches long.  Bring a small pot of water to the boil and when boiling put the beans in for about a minute.  Drain them and then (like the eggs), put them into a bowl of icy cold water.  This “shocks” the beans so they immediately stop cooking and keep their nice green colour.  Then drain the beans and add them to the salad.
   
   
   
7. To cook the tuna, put a Tablespoon of oil into a frying pan over a medium-hot heat.  Season the tuna with salt and pepper.  When the oil is hot, put the tuna steaks in the pan. Cook for about 1 1/2 minutes on either side for rare tuna or slightly longer if you prefer the tuna fully cooked.  Remove the steaks to a board and slice into strips.  You can have this hot on the salad or wait until it is cool.
8. To make the dressing, put all the dressing ingredients into a small bowl and whisk to combine.
9. Pour the dressing over the salad and give everything a good mix.