Cooking the Chronicle – Feb 14
An admission. I have never had a niçoise salad before. Not a poor man’s version (“Poor man’s tuna niçoise salad,” Feb 14) or a rich man’s version. Despite loving salads and fish, I haven’t even ordered this in a restaurant. This week’s recipe makes a solid argument for why I should give the niçoise salad a chance.
The ingredients are incredibly simple and easy to prepare. The only thing that requires chopping are the green beans and cucumbers. You can boil the eggs, green beans and potatoes back to back in the same water and you open a can or two of tuna. Simple! The hardest part of this recipe is the dressing, which requires you measure a number of spices and chop some alliums.
My three-year old loved dumping bowls of toppings onto our platter of lettuce and piling ingredients on top of each other. These salads are so kid-friendly to prepare if you put them all in different bowls and let your children put the salad together themselves. A lot of food experts say that when children interact with their food they are more likely to eat it, so we let our toddler nibble from the bowls and taste her favorites (tomatoes) and new things (soft-boiled eggs).
Let’s take a minute to talk about the dressing. With simple, unseasoned ingredients, I feared this salad would lack in flavor. That was not the case. This dressing is SO good. Herby, flavorful, sharp, and bold. It is the perfect dressing for this salad and without it, it would simply be a plate of boring ingredients. We were very happy to have extra dressing and saved it in a mason jar for future salads.
From my research and Jessica Grann’s notes, I understand that niçoise salads are traditionally served with fresh seared tuna. If you’re using canned tuna (which is so much easier) take her advice and please opt for the most delicious, high-quality, oil packed tuna you can fine. With the rise of companies like Fishwife, we’re actually in what I have (just now) deemed our tinned-fish era. It’s very easy to find great canned tuna.
If you don’t mind breaking from tradition, this salad would work with every protein. I would love it with salmon or skirt steak, and chicken would also go well with it. Dream big!
This was a huge, hearty main dish salad. And after a number of months cooking Jessica Grann’s recipes, I have noticed that her portion sizes are quite large. Great for a huge Shabbat meal, but if you’re making this for a small family dinner, please halve it. We cut the recipe in half and I would estimate it could serve 8 people.
Ultimately, I really enjoyed this! My family also enjoyed it. We all kept saying that we would be happy to eat a niçoise salad again, but it’s just not something we would ever think of making, even with all the ingredients on hand. But you better believe I will be making this dressing again!
