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Salad Niçoise

by JANE WORTHINGTON ROTH

It’s the high season for summer produce and farmers’ markets are bursting at the seams with an assortment of vegetables. One of the healthiest ways to enjoy the season’s bounty is with a salad. Most folks have favorite veggies they like to toss into a salad bowl, resulting in what’s traditionally known as a “tossed salad.”

A Niçoise salad (“salade Niçoise” in French) is a different type of salad known as a composed salad or “salade composée.” What sets it apart from a tossed salad is that the individual components are kept separate and are artfully arranged. This type of salad looks best when served on a large platter or salad board.

Niçoise salad was developed in Nice, a beautiful French city on the shores of the Mediterranean Sea. Traditionally, the salad is made using only raw vegetables, including mesclun greens, tomatoes, hard-boiled eggs, cucumbers, bell peppers, olives, spring onions and anchovy fillets. But even great French chefs sometimes make adaptations to traditional recipes. Julia Child added potatoes to hers and Escoffier (who was a Niçoise himself) added string beans to his salad.

In my perhaps untraditional - but delicious - Niçoise salad, I add boiled baby potatoes and green beans, and yes, always include anchovy fillets! Although you can add canned tuna to my recipe, it’s even more delicious when you serve the salad along with a grilled tuna steak.

To make clean-up as simple as can be, I use the same small pot for blanching the green beans, boiling the potatoes and then boiling the eggs. Traditionalists serve their salad with only a drizzle of olive oil but I prefer a light coating of Dijon vinaigrette which adds a delicious tang to the salad and offsets the saltiness of the anchovies.

SALAD NIÇOISE
Serves 2

For the Vinaigrette
½ cup extra virgin olive oil
2 tablespoons white wine vinegar or white balsamic vinegar
1 teaspoon Dijon style mustard

For the Salad
6 baby Yukon Gold potatoes
Small bunch of green beans
4 eggs
4 cups of mesclun or baby greens
½ red bell pepper, thinly sliced
2 heirloom tomatoes, sliced
2 scallions, sliced
2 ribs of celery, sliced
1 cup olives, preferably Niçoise olives or French oil-cured olives
1 can flat anchovy fillets in oil
1 pound tuna steak
Olive oil, for grilling

Put the olive oil, vinegar and mustard in a small mason jar, cover, and shake well. Set aside.

Fill a medium bowl with ice water and set aside.

Bring a small pot of water to a boil. Add the green beans and simmer for 2 minutes. Remove the green beans with a slotted spoon or tongs and immediately plunge them into the bowl of ice water. This will ensure the beans stay crisp and bright green. Remove the beans from the ice bath and set aside.

In the same small pot of boiling water, add the potatoes and simmer for 5 to 8 minutes until they are tender enough to be easily pierced with a fork. Using a slotted spoon, remove the potatoes from the pot and put them in the ice water to chill. Remove from the ice bath and cut into bite-size pieces (halves or quarters).

In the same pot of simmering water, gently place the eggs. Bring the water to a boil, then cover the pot and remove from the heat. Let the eggs sit in the hot water for 12 minutes. Using the slotted spoon, transfer the eggs to the ice bath to stop the cooking and to make them easier to peel. When cool enough to handle, peel and quarter the eggs.

Open the can of anchovies and remove 8 fillets. Rinse the anchovies under running water and pat dry.

To “compose” your salad, place the mesclun greens in the center of a platter and arrange the vegetables and hard-boiled eggs around the lettuces. Carefully place the anchovies on top of the mesclun.

If you’re going to serve the salad with grilled tuna steaks, put the undressed salad aside while you grill the tuna. Heat your grill to high. Brush the tuna steaks with a little olive oil and grill each side for 2 to 3 minutes. It’s that easy!

Re-shake the vinaigrette and pour over the salad, including on top of the eggs. Serve immediately.

Bon Appétit!

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