A Riviera Salad
The Niçoise salad comes with its own baggage: people have a lot of opinions about what should (and shouldn’t) be included. This is my take, which veers from tradition but keeps the summer flavors of the Riviera that have made the Niçoise such a classic.
Ingredients
- Serves 8
- 1 pound small tomatoes Early Girl or Roma preferred, quartered
- Salt
- 12 ounces fingerling potatoes
- 1 pound raw fava beans
- 3 heads Little Gem lettuce
- 14 basil leaves
- 1 clove garlic halved
- 2 green bell peppers stemmed, seeded, and thinly sliced
- 1 small red onion thinly sliced
- 2 small cucumbers peeled and cut into ¼-inch slices
- ½ cup pitted Niçoise olives
- 8 ounces canned solid tuna packed in oil drained
- 3 eggs hard-boiled (see this page), peeled, and halved lengthwise
- Freshly ground black pepper
- ⅓ cup extra-virgin olive oil
Instructions
- Spread the tomatoes on a plate in a single layer.
- Sprinkle with a generous pinch of salt and set aside for at least 30 minutes as you prepare the rest of the ingredients.
- Cover the potatoes with cold water in a large pot.
- Add 1 tablespoon salt and turn the heat to medium.
- Simmer, uncovered, until the potatoes are soft, about 20 minutes.
- Drain and set aside to cool.
- Once cool, cut them in half lengthwise.
- Blanch the fava beans by dunking them in boiling water for 30 seconds.
- Drain and run cold water over them to stop the cooking process.
- Pop the beans out of their pod and use a knife to peel and discard the outer skin.
- Remove the outer leaves from the lettuce and trim the very bottom stem, being careful not to trim off too much or they’ll break apart.
- Cut each head in half lengthwise, then in half lengthwise once more to make wedges.
- Tear half of the basil leaves into bite-size pieces.
- To assemble the salad, rub the cut side of the garlic clove over your serving platter’s surface.
- Scatter the Little Gems, fingerlings, fava beans, bell peppers, onion, cucumbers, and olives over the platter, finding space in all the gaps.
- Add the tuna, breaking it into bite-size pieces.
- Top with the eggs, torn basil, the tomatoes, and a healthy pinch of black pepper.
- Cover the platter with plastic wrap and chill in your refrigerator for at least 30 minutes, or up to 2 hours.
- Finely chop the remaining basil leaves.
- In a small bowl, whisk the basil into the olive oil, cover, and chill in your refrigerator along with the salad.
- Just before serving, drizzle with the dressing and a pinch of salt.
