Weeknight Dinner: Salade Nicoise
It can be a challenge for we who grew up in Grandma’s Kitchen to think of salad as a meal in itself. To us, through countless years of training weeknight dinner has been realized through the classic Home Ec meal design of a protein, a starchy side, a vegetable side, and dessert. In this practice, salad is a side dish or, on days when one is feeling virtuous, what you eat for lunch. Old-fashioned dinner menus are their own study, and a visit to the vintage cookbooks on the Homekeeper’s Bookshelf provides a fascinating glimpse into what was served for dinner at the American Table just a couple of generations ago. Wednesday night pork chops self-resurrected from a pool of the milk they cooked in, served over bullets of boiled white rice or a slither of egg noodles, accented by a dish of such fresh delicacies as lettuce in cream, salted cucumbers and tomatoes, even a fruit compote. Other treasures from the vintage veggie vault include aspics and molded salads, and countless ways to dress up canned and frozen vegetables for an appearance the dinner table.
In my grandmother’s kitchen, fresh vegetables and salad, while related, were separate serves. In season, she served fresh vegetables from her garden, cleaned, chilled, and presented in and of themselves: slices of cucumber sprinkled with vinegar and rock salt, yellow tomatoes placed as naked wedges in a bowl of her yellow Depression glass, rounds of sweet-hot red onion. Fresh salad was iceberg lettuce formed into cups and sprinkled with oil, salt, and pepper, whereas fancy salads for gatherings were three-bean, cole slaw, or the dreaded seven layer. Upon moving north, I learned about salad beyond the farmhouse table and church sideboard. In Pennsylvania, I fell with the gratitude of true discovery upon a bowl of Nana’s legendary pepper slaw even as I was bewildered by the preponderance of beets. I learned to eat chow-chow on a bowl of beans, and potato salad made with mustard and capers rather than mayo and pickles. In New York City, I tasted my first Caesar salad, prepared tableside, at the long-gone Joe’s Bar and Grill in the West Village. I fell so in love with the dish that it was the first dinner salad I learned how to make.
But it wasn’t the last. At Paris Commune, known for its brunches, I discovered Salade Niçoise, served alongside coffee from a French Press and a sparkling dram of Crème de Menthe, Cassis, or Lillet. At the Greek Diner, I encountered both the mighty Greek Salad and the local specialty Hoagie Salad. A health food restaurant near NYU served a salmon salad with mugs of hot Mu tea; nothing tasted so clean and filling. Taking a cue from my grandma, I investigated fresh vegetables as an interesting side dish as themselves, creating a vibrant pepper salad, fresh fennel tossed with oranges, and a version of green salad that takes the name literally. Many of these recipes are posted on Urban Home Blog – look for the salad tag – and three more are about to be. In this month of new growth as spring vegetables appear in garden and market, here is the first of three dinner salad recipes we serve our urban home.
Salade Niçoise can be a tough sell for someone not used to or open to French cooking, but it is a true cornerstone of the cuisine. There are versions of the salade from Parisian bistro to seaside shack, but to be Niçoise it should include tuna, olives, and a selection of French produce, typically tomatoes, green beans, and potatoes. To be true to the spirit and the letter of French cooking, the ingredients should be fresh and of the highest quality available. That includes a staple of seaside cooking in Nice as throughout the Mediterranean: tuna canned in oil. Many American fisheries and canneries are problematic regarding responsibility to the world’s waters and its inhabitants. Look for the words “responsibly pole- and line- caught” with "no long lines" on the label. Click here for a reputable ethics ranking of canned tuna brands.
Salade Niçoise
Serve your salade composed as here, or distribute the ingredients equally among four pasta bowls. If you wish, rather than canned tuna, top each serving with seared sushi-grade tuna – still holding the fishmonger accountable for whether the filets come from fish that were pole-caught in open waters.
2 5-ounce cans pole- and line-/no long lines caught tuna, preferably canned in olive oil
1 anchovy filet
1 head Romaine lettuce
1 head red leaf lettuce
1 head Boston lettuce
1/2 pound red baby potatoes, rinsed and halved
1/2 pound fresh green beans, rinsed and snapped
1 pint cherry tomatoes, rinsed, halved, and chilled
1 shallot, peeled, pithed and minced
2 large eggs, boiled, peeled, and halved
1/4 - 1/3 pound Picholine olives
Herbes des Provence or fresh tarragon
Freshly ground black pepper
Extra-virgin olive oil
1 recipe classic vinaigrette or anchovy vinaigrette
Prepare the greens
In my grandmother’s kitchen, fresh vegetables and salad, while related, were separate serves. In season, she served fresh vegetables from her garden, cleaned, chilled, and presented in and of themselves: slices of cucumber sprinkled with vinegar and rock salt, yellow tomatoes placed as naked wedges in a bowl of her yellow Depression glass, rounds of sweet-hot red onion. Fresh salad was iceberg lettuce formed into cups and sprinkled with oil, salt, and pepper, whereas fancy salads for gatherings were three-bean, cole slaw, or the dreaded seven layer. Upon moving north, I learned about salad beyond the farmhouse table and church sideboard. In Pennsylvania, I fell with the gratitude of true discovery upon a bowl of Nana’s legendary pepper slaw even as I was bewildered by the preponderance of beets. I learned to eat chow-chow on a bowl of beans, and potato salad made with mustard and capers rather than mayo and pickles. In New York City, I tasted my first Caesar salad, prepared tableside, at the long-gone Joe’s Bar and Grill in the West Village. I fell so in love with the dish that it was the first dinner salad I learned how to make.
But it wasn’t the last. At Paris Commune, known for its brunches, I discovered Salade Niçoise, served alongside coffee from a French Press and a sparkling dram of Crème de Menthe, Cassis, or Lillet. At the Greek Diner, I encountered both the mighty Greek Salad and the local specialty Hoagie Salad. A health food restaurant near NYU served a salmon salad with mugs of hot Mu tea; nothing tasted so clean and filling. Taking a cue from my grandma, I investigated fresh vegetables as an interesting side dish as themselves, creating a vibrant pepper salad, fresh fennel tossed with oranges, and a version of green salad that takes the name literally. Many of these recipes are posted on Urban Home Blog – look for the salad tag – and three more are about to be. In this month of new growth as spring vegetables appear in garden and market, here is the first of three dinner salad recipes we serve our urban home.
Salade Niçoise can be a tough sell for someone not used to or open to French cooking, but it is a true cornerstone of the cuisine. There are versions of the salade from Parisian bistro to seaside shack, but to be Niçoise it should include tuna, olives, and a selection of French produce, typically tomatoes, green beans, and potatoes. To be true to the spirit and the letter of French cooking, the ingredients should be fresh and of the highest quality available. That includes a staple of seaside cooking in Nice as throughout the Mediterranean: tuna canned in oil. Many American fisheries and canneries are problematic regarding responsibility to the world’s waters and its inhabitants. Look for the words “responsibly pole- and line- caught” with "no long lines" on the label. Click here for a reputable ethics ranking of canned tuna brands.
Salade Niçoise
Serve your salade composed as here, or distribute the ingredients equally among four pasta bowls. If you wish, rather than canned tuna, top each serving with seared sushi-grade tuna – still holding the fishmonger accountable for whether the filets come from fish that were pole-caught in open waters.
2 5-ounce cans pole- and line-/no long lines caught tuna, preferably canned in olive oil
1 anchovy filet
1 head Romaine lettuce
1 head red leaf lettuce
1 head Boston lettuce
1/2 pound red baby potatoes, rinsed and halved
1/2 pound fresh green beans, rinsed and snapped
1 pint cherry tomatoes, rinsed, halved, and chilled
1 shallot, peeled, pithed and minced
2 large eggs, boiled, peeled, and halved
1/4 - 1/3 pound Picholine olives
Herbes des Provence or fresh tarragon
Freshly ground black pepper
Extra-virgin olive oil
1 recipe classic vinaigrette or anchovy vinaigrette
Prepare the greens
- Strip and tear the Romaine using the method here.
- Remove the leaves from the core of the remaining lettuces. Strip the ribs from each leaf as above.
- Place all three lettuces into an in-sink colander. Rinse the lettuces, cover with a layer of paper towels, and leave to drain.
Prepare the vegetables
- Place the potatoes into a large saucepan. Fill the saucepan with water to an inch above the potatoes. Add a dash of salt to the water.
- Bring the water to a boil. Boil the potatoes until tender, approximately ten minutes.
- Safely use a slotted spoon to transfer the potatoes from the hot water to a bowl or plate. Place the potatoes in the refrigerator.
- Safely use the spoon to transfer the green beans to the boiling water.
- Boil the beans until crisp-tender, 4 - 6 minutes.
- Safely use the slotted spoon to transfer the green beans from the hot water to a bowl or plate. Place the green beans in the refrigerator.
- Turn of the burner and either cover the pan or safely pour the hot water down the drain.
Prepare the tuna
- Place a colander onto a dinner plate.
- Open the tuna can and use a small spoon or rubber spatula to transfer the tuna into the colander. Be sure to get all of the tuna out of the can.
- Add the anchovy and several grindings of fresh black pepper to the tuna. Drizzle the tuna with a two-count of olive oil.
- Gently use the spoon / spatula to press the tuna so that it starts to break up. As you do it will release oil; that is okay. The plate will catch the oil.
- Continue to press the mixture until well-combined, so that the anchovy works throughout the tuna along with the black pepper.
Assemble and serve the salad
- Scatter the dried lettuces into a large salad bowl. Sprinkle with fresh tarragon or Herbes des Provence and several grindings of fresh black pepper. Scatter the salad with diced shallot.
- Distribute the potatoes, green beans, tomatoes, and olives across the salad. Place the eggs around the edge of the salad like the numbers on a clock.
- Either top the salad with the dressed tuna or set the tuna aside to serve with the dressing.
- Serve at once.
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