Salade Nicoise

By John, 30 December, 2023
Region
France
Description

"Salade Nicoise"Here's a beautiful and substantial salad suitable as a main course for a light lunch or on a picnic. It is full of the sunny Mediterranean flavors of southern France: olives, tuna, anchovies, tuna, tomatoes. I made this one in December for a special feast, so I used sun-dried tomatoes instead of "fresh" ones, and it was great.

The foundation of this is a bed of nice green lettuce dressed with Sauce Vinaigrette and topped with French Potato Salad and cold blanched green beans, then dressed with anchovies, hard-cooked eggs, and everything else.

Yield
8 Servings
Preparation time
30 minutes
Cooking time
5 minutes
Total time
35 minutes
Ingredients
1 c Sauce Vinaigrette (see recipe)
1 Boston Lettuce (separated, rinsed, and dried)
3 c French Potato Salad (see recipe)
3 c Green Beans (blanched and chilled)
4 Fresh Tomatoes (quartered)
1 jar of preserved Italian tuna (drained)
1⁄2 c Black Olives
3 Hard-Boiled Eggs (shelled and quartered)
12 Anchovies (rinsed and drained)
3 T minced fresh herbs
Instructions
  1. Toss the lettuce leaves with 1/4 cup of the Sauce Vinaigrette and arrange them on a platter.
  2. Put the French Potato Salad in a mound in the middle.
  3. Toss the chilled beans with some of the vinaigrette, and array them in long piles in parallel fashion on either side of the potatoes.
  4. Toss the quartered tomatoes in some of the vinaigrette and arrange them evenly around the platter.
  5. Arrange the tuna, olives, quartered eggs, and anchovies around the platter. 
  6. When you are satisfied with your artistic creation, sprinkle the rest of the Sauce Vinaigrette over it all, then sprinkle with the minced fresh herbs. 
Source

Mastering the Art of French Cooking, Simone Beck, Louisette Bertholle, and Julia Child