Salade Niçoise

A composed salad built in sections rather than tossed, with the eggs the only thing on the plate that has been cooked.

Fish, Egg. Not vegetarian — contains fish.

Ingredients

For the salad

• 4 ripe tomatoes, in wedges
• 1 cucumber, peeled and sliced thick
• 1 small red onion, sliced very thin
• 1 green pepper, in thin rings
• 200 g good tinned tuna in oil, drained
• 8 anchovy fillets
• 4 eggs
• 100 g small black olives
• a handful of small basil leaves
• 1 clove garlic, halved

For the dressing

• 6 tablespoons olive oil
• 1 tablespoon red wine vinegar
• 1 clove garlic, crushed
• salt and pepper

Method

1. NOTHING ON THIS PLATE IS COOKED EXCEPT THE EGGS, AND THAT IS THIS PAGE'S CHOICE. No potato and no green beans. There is a long-running argument about whether they belong, and I am not going to tell you what is customary in Nice, because that is a fact I have not sourced. What I can say is what the choice DOES: raw, everything on the plate is crisp and the dressing stays sharp, and warm boiled potato in a vinaigrette turns the whole bowl soft and starchy within ten minutes. Add them if you want them; this is a different salad and it is better cold.
2. IT IS COMPOSED, NOT TOSSED. Each thing laid in its own section and the dressing spooned over the top. Tossed, the tomato gives up its water, the tuna breaks into shreds and coats everything, and you get one flavour instead of eight.
3. THE TOMATOES ARE SALTED AND DRAINED FIRST. Fifteen minutes in a colander with a good pinch of salt, and the water that would have flooded the plate goes down the sink instead. This is the step that decides whether the dressing stays a dressing.
4. THE BOWL IS RUBBED WITH RAW GARLIC AND NO MORE GARLIC GOES NEAR THE VEGETABLES. Crushed garlic scattered through a raw salad is harsh and is all you taste an hour later.
5. Eggs lowered into boiling water for 9 minutes, then straight into cold water. Peeled and quartered when cold. Nine minutes gives a yolk just set and still bright; twelve gives the chalky grey-ringed one.
6. Tomatoes cut into wedges, salted, and left in a colander 15 minutes.
7. The serving bowl or platter rubbed hard with the cut garlic clove, which is then discarded.
8. Onion sliced paper thin and soaked in cold water 10 minutes to take the bite out. Drained and dried.
9. Dressing whisked: oil, vinegar, crushed garlic, salt and plenty of pepper.
10. Cucumber, pepper, drained tomatoes and onion arranged in separate sections.
11. Tuna broken into large chunks -- not flaked -- and set in its own section.
12. Egg quarters, anchovy fillets and olives placed around.
13. The dressing spooned over the whole plate, basil leaves torn over, and served within 20 minutes. It does not keep: an hour later it is a bowl of liquid.

Our own recipe. This one was written for this site rather than taken from anywhere, so there is no source to point you at. The quantities and the order of the steps are choices, not the only way to do it.

Filed under France · All recipes