Salade Niçoise

Name: Salade Niçoise
Yield: serves 6
Ingredients: 1 large head Boston-lettuce leaves, washed and dried; 1 pound green beans, cooked and refreshed (page 25); 1 1/2 Tbs minced shallots; 1/2 to 2/3 cup basic vinaigrette (page 16); Salt and freshly ground pepper; 3 or 4 ripe red tomatoes, cut into wedges (or 10 to 12 cherry tomatoes, halved); 3 or 4 “boiling” potatoes, peeled, sliced, and cooked (see potato salad, page 20); Two 3-ounce cans chunk tuna, preferably oil-packed; 6 hard-boiled eggs, peeled and halved (page 70); 1 freshly opened can of flat anchovy fillets; 1/3 cup small black Niçoise-type olives; 2 to 3 Tbs capers; 3 Tbs minced fresh parsley

January 24, 2012

Of all main-course salads, the Niçoise is my all-time favorite, with its fresh butter-lettuce foundation; its carefully cooked, beautifully green green beans; its colorful contrast of halved hard-boiled eggs, ripe red tomatoes, and black olives; all fortified by chunks of tunafish and freshly opened anchovies. It’s a perfect luncheon dish, to my mind, winter, summer, spring, and fall—an inspired combination that pleases everyone.

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