Cooking With Campiche: Salade Niçoise

Published 9:00 am Tuesday, August 8, 2023

One inch of rain in two months, until this afternoon, that is. The times are changing. Summers are hot and dry, good for outside picnics.

Some things don’t change. Some things gather like storm clouds, leap back into our minds, a habit perhaps, but a moment covered with nostalgia.

I ate my first Salade Niçoise at the table of my mother, Val. She was a fine cook, who collected cookbooks like a philatelist collects postage stamps. She cooked like an angel, and taught me to love food and the craft that celebrates it like a golden thread.

My wife and partner, Laurie Anderson, prepared this same salad lovingly (her variation) just as I walked through the back door late this July, returning from work (cooking again, always cooking).

The weather was hot and the salad light and flavorful, laid out like a still life. Salade Niçoise is a French favorite. The protein is tuna.

Laurie did it classically one night, and the next, she substituted the tuna with marinated shrimp. We poured ourselves some French Chablis and lingered at the table, fully satisfied. Earlier, she had picked most of the ingredients from the garden which had been nothing but a patch of sand dune just four years ago. Now it feeds us regularly. What joy such a garden and meal can bring.

Salade Niçoise

Ingredients (serves four)

• 1 pound waxy potatoes, boiled with their

jackets on (we used yellow Finn potatoes)

• Organic lettuce, torn into pieces

• 1/2 cup extra virgin olive oil

• 1/4 cup apple cider vinegar

• 1 tablespoon organic Dijon mustard

• Three medium cloves of minced garlic

• 1 teaspoon honey

• 1/2 pound French green beans

• 3/4 pound fresh baked tuna, or two cans of

yellowtail fillets

• 1/2 cup pitted Kalamata olives

• Four hard-boiled eggs, peeled and sliced

• Two ripe tomatoes, cut into wedges

• Salt and freshly ground black pepper

• Paprika to taste

Preparation

Place the potatoes in cold, salted water and bring to a boil. Reduce to simmer and continue to cook until tender, about 12 minutes. Make the vinaigrette by drizzling oil slowly into a food processor with vinegar, Dijon mustard and honey. Season with salt and pepper.

Or, alternately, shake all the ingredients in a glass jar with a tight lid. Once the potatoes are fully cooked and drained, they can be peeled, or not. Slice them into 1/2-inch thick slices and place them in a bowl.

Pour 1/4 cup of the vinaigrette over the potatoes while still warm and gently stir to distribute the dressing. Set aside. Add the green beans to boiling, salted water and cook until al dente, about 5 minutes. Drain and run cold water over them.

Divide the lettuce and protein on plates, then arrange the beans and potatoes on either side. Add hard-boiled eggs and arrange the olives and tomatoes. Drizzle the remaining vinaigrette over each salad. Sprinkle paprika over the eggs and potatoes.

This salad finishes out a summer day. Don’t forget a dry white wine.