Nicoise Salad Recipe

With summer here, and an abundance of summer vegetables, plus the fact that I live just a few miles from Nice in France, it is time to get out the summer salad recipes, and the Nicoise salad is one of my favourites. This is an extremely simple recipe, although it is a good idea to prepare the various ingredients before putting the final salad together.

The salad is named after the city in France where it originated – Nice. Nice is on the South coast of France near the border with Italy, and the traditional salad comprises of green peppers, cebette onions, artichokes, Tuna, green beans, anchovies, roquette or mesclun salad, tomatoes, cucumber, black olives and boiled egg.

Like most recipes, there are actually a million different ways to prepare this and – whether the locals are prepared to admit it or not – things have changed, and there are very few places in Nice to get the traditional version.

The simple fact is – over fishing the Mediterranean has put the Bluefin Tuna almost into extinction. But – like all good greedy humans – the French fishermen and arguing and fighting against any quotas and limits – mostly down to the ridiculous prices movie stars will pay for Sushi.

Sometimes I despair. Where is the sense in fishing a fish into extinction for the short term profit? Either way – I use canned tuna instead of fresh and most restaurants do as well, so my recipe differs from the “traditional.”

Ingredients (per person – increase as needed)

• One hard boiled egg
• One large Tomato
• Half a young white onion
• Handful Mesclun lettuce
• One medium size boiled potato
• Handful cooked and chilled green beans
• 80 grams canned tuna in olive oil
• 1 bottle Rosé wine

For the dressing

• ¼ cup olive oil
• teaspoon Dijon mustard
• Salt and pepper
• Handful fresh, chopped Basil

First – open the wine and pour a glass, sip and start work – the wine is for the chef, and no one needs to know about this ingredient.......

As you can see – a few things need to be gotten ready before putting the salad together – specifically the potatoes, green beans and boiled eggs. Cook these and chill about half an hour (or more) before serving the salad. The green beans need the ends removed and the potatoes need to be cut into bite sized pieces. As soon as they are cooked, run them under cold water and place them in the fridge until it is time to make the salad.

Wash and dry the Mesclun, toss in the salad dressing and place in the middle of the plate. Place the various ingredients around the edges of the salad and add the tuna in the middle. Sprinkle with fresh ground black pepper.

Feel free to adapt to suit. I do not like anchovies, so I do not include them for myself, but I do when I make this for some one who does like anchovies. Be creative – there are a million ways to make this salad. Julia Child was instrumental in bringing this recipe to the US and has her own version, Emeril makes one, the Barefoot Contessa and Gordon Ramsay all do their own thing. There are some links to other famous versions here. If you happen to be on the Atkins diet – as I am while I try and lose weight I gained when I quit smoking – this is easily adapted to an Atkins diet recipe – just lose the potatoes.

There is no right or wrong way to do this – it is cooking and to a large extent the way you make it will depend on several factors – whether or not you can and are willing to buy fresh Bluefin Tuna, what ingredients you have available and what you and your family like to eat. I generally – when I am not on a diet – serve this with Rosé wine.