A composed salad from Nice featuring tuna, hard-boiled eggs, green beans, potatoes, olives, and anchovies on a bed of lettuce. It is a celebration of Provencal ingredients and Mediterranean sunshine.
Ingredients
300g fresh tuna steaks
4 large eggs, hard-boiled
200g green beans, trimmed
300g small potatoes, boiled
200g cherry tomatoes, halved
100g Nicoise olives
4 anchovy fillets
1 head butter lettuce
4 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
2 tablespoons red wine vinegar
1 teaspoon Dijon mustard
1 teaspoon salt
Instructions
1Boil the small potatoes until just tender and the green beans until crisp-tender, then shock the beans in ice water to preserve their bright green color.
2Sear the tuna steaks in a hot skillet with olive oil for two minutes per side so they remain pink in the center, then slice them into thick strips.
3Prepare the vinaigrette by whisking together the olive oil, red wine vinegar, Dijon mustard, salt, and pepper until emulsified and smooth.
4Arrange the butter lettuce leaves on a large platter and artfully compose the salad by placing the tuna, eggs, potatoes, beans, tomatoes, olives, and anchovies in separate sections.
5Drizzle the vinaigrette over the entire composed salad just before serving and let each guest combine the components on their own plate.
Did You Know?
Purists in Nice insist that a true salade Nicoise should never contain cooked vegetables — the original version used only raw vegetables, tuna, and olive oil.