French Summer Recipe: Salade Niçoise
Hot days and summer produce make this bistro classic work
There’s some debate over salade niçoise. Like many traditional French recipes, this is simple food for poor people using basic ingredient from the region.
The salad originates from Nice and began appearing on menus in the late 1800s, likely shortly after Nice became a part of France in 1860 (annexed from the Kingdom of Sardinia). There are many, many contested versions and even Escoffier’s recipe, himself described as the “king of chefs and chef of kings,” was seen as inauthentic as he was not from Nice, but a town 8 miles away.
Jacques Médecin is credited by some (himself, mostly) with the most “authentic” recipe for Salade Niçoise. Médecin was the mayor of Nice from 1966 to 1990 and a controversial figure due to his aberrant racism, questionable politics and corruption scandals. He considered Jacques and Marine LePen personal friends. Politics aside, Médecin’s book, Recipes from a Mediterranean Kitchen, is universally loved.
Rowley Leigh, food writer for the FT, put it well:
"In spite of the fact that Médecin was a famously racist mayor of Nice who was extradited from South America in order to face trial on corruption charges, the book, unlike its author, was a delight... However crooked Médecin had been, none of us doubted his cooking."
Purists reject vinegar, lettuce, tuna, or any cooked item except the egg. Green beans and potatoes are an absolute No.
Per Médecin: “…never, ever, I beg you, include boiled potato or any other kind of boiled vegetable in your salade niçoise.”
K
Notes:
· Use quality anchovies or tuna. Anchovies vary wildly, regardless of price. You can spend $30 on a meh product. I like Martel – at $3 a can, typically, they’re great quality.
· Take advantage of the summer season
· chill everything beforehand
· Careful with S&P – anchovies & tuna have some salt
· Slice thinly - except tomatoes
· Always have bread
Salade Niçoise – for purists
Serves 2-3
Ingredients
- 4 medium tomatoes, sliced
- Sea salt and freshly ground black pepper
- 1 green bell pepper, julienned
- 8 radishes, julienned
- 1 seedless cucumber, peeled and sliced
- 8 oil-packed anchovies
- 8 ounces canned tuna in olive oil (not in Médecin’s version, but I like both. You can do tuna instead of anchovies, if you prefer.)
- 1/2 cup pitted Niçoise or Kalamata olives
- 10 fresh basil leaves, shredded by hand
- 4 hardboiled eggs, peeled and cut in half
- 1/4 cup extra-virgin olive oil
Preparation
- Arrange tomatoes on a large platter.
- season with S&P.
- arrange green pepper strips, radishes, cucumbers, anchovies, tuna (with its oil), olives, and shredded basil in that order. Make it attractive.
- Place hardboiled eggs.
- Drizzle with the extra-virgin olive oil.
I have also love the potato & green bean version. While it’s not what certain corrupt mayors might prefer, it makes a beautiful spread and can feed a family.