Salade Niçoise

 

Salade Niçoise is one of the composed salads, in some ways a tuna version of Cobb Salad but much more complex—not surprising since it is French in origin, having first appeared in the city of Nice. Beyond that, no one seems to agree on much about the dish. One version I read is that originally it was simply anchovies, tomatoes, and olive oil. Auguste Escoffier, the famous chef who lived near Nice, added boiled green beans and potatoes, probably in the early nineteenth century. In the seventies the then-mayor of Nice, himself a cookbook author, decreed authoritatively that the salad should be mostly tomatoes; hard-boiled eggs and tuna were allowed but the green beans and potatoes had to go. Today’s Salade often incorporates all of the above.

Canned tuna is used in most recipes, but even then, controversy hovers. Julia Child insisted on canned tuna in olive oil; others prefer canned in water. And now there’s a new version in the field. Dining alone recently, I decided on Salade Niçoise since I had all the ingredients on hand. Only later did I find out that I had inadvertently prepared the latest version. Here’s what I did:

Ingredients – serves two

3 Tbsp. olive oil

2 Tbsp. lemon juice

1 Tbsp. minced shallot

1 tsp. Dijon mustard

2 anchovies minced (or 1 tsp. anchovy paste)

¼ tsp. salt

1/8 tsp pepper

Whisk dressing ingredients together and set aside.

Six or eight grape tomatoes, halved lengthwise

¼ tsp. sugar

¼ tsp. salt

Eight or ten baby potatoes, either red or Yukon gold, the size of your thumb

A handful of green beans, ends snapped, cut in half if necessary.

3 hard-boiled eggs

1 5-6 oz. can tuna (I prefer water-packed chunk tuna—you want a really good tuna, like Tonino)

Niçoise olives and capers (optional, which means I omit them)

Toss the tomatoes with sugar and salt and let sit while you prepare the potatoes. Boil the potatoes until just tender, let cool a bit and then use a wooden spoon to smash each. Toss with olive oil and fry in skillet until crisp. Drain and cool. (This is a great way to make smashed potatoes for any kind of meal; you can roast in a hot oven instead of frying if you prefer—just be sure to toss in olive oil first.)

If you don’t want smashed potatoes in the salad, just toss the warm potatoes in a bit of the dressing before you put them on the plate. But smashing them was what I thought was such a great idea—and then I found it in an online cooking column.

Boil the green beans until just crisp-tender and cool in an ice bath.

Arrange the salad ingredients in two plates—I like to use soup plates for main dish salads. Drizzle dressing over ingredients and share extra dressing in a small pitcher.

An odd note: Julia Child fancied up her Salade Niçoise by twisting an anchovy on each egg half. Catches the eye.

And a digression: My oldest daughter always wants to know why people say tuna fish salad and not just tuna salad. Ever thought about it?